Flight 29 Down: Island Hopping
by adversary2113
Summary: Sequel to Hotel Havoc. What happens when the 7 survivors meet Captain Russell's Evil Brother and have to deal with sex, suicidal tendencies and the little monsters from Cloverfield ? Find out!
1. Chapter 1

Day 36: The Hotel Tango: Midmorning

Cody Jackson couldn't quite suppress a shudder as he and the four others stood looking at the crumbling shell of the Hotel Tango. One would never guess by looking at the decayed building the host of monstrous atrocities that had been committed there by the late Captain Robert "Bob" Russell against seven teenagers , lost in the jungle due to a airplane "crash". An accident that was in all likelihood as thoroughly planned out by the deranged captain as his sexual humiliation of the captives. As Jackson looked at the building, he felt a faint touch on his left shoulder and turned his head to look into the dark eyes of Melissa Wu, a look of concern on her attractive Amerasian face as she quietly asked:

" Are you sure you're ready for this Cody ? There's enough of us here that you really don't have to go in…", her voice trailed off as she waited for his answer. Taking a deep breath, then letting it out slowly, broad shoulders slumping, Jackson replied in a husky voice:

" I'll never be ready to go in that hellhole again. But I have to, for the memories of the others and because I can't lead the others if I'm afraid of where I'm leading them." 

Withdrawing her hand from his shoulder, Mel sighed softly, " I guess we need to get it over with then." She took Jackson's hand in hers as the tall young man addressed the rest of the group.

" Ok guys," he began, pointing at each as he spoke , " Eric, you and I will go and see if we can disconnect the generator, Mel, gather up any medical supplies that idiot Russell may have left behind. Daley, you and Lex have the most important job; figuring out where he stashed the food he had. It'll be a lot easier on us, trying to make this trip, if we have a food supply that we don't have to eat or let spoil in just a day or two. Let's go ahead and get started; I really don't want to be within a mile of this place after dark, Mel and Eric probably feel the same way." With that, he waved Eric McGorrill over to him and they went left, towards the maintenance area of the old building. 

" How you holdin' up Chief ?" Eric asked, absently adjusting the ever present straw hat on his ginger brown hair, reaching out to briefly touch Cody's shoulder, silently as he noticed the trembling in his own hand. _Damn, am I ever gonna g_et used t_o this?! It's been almost a week now and I still get so nervous around him I nearly puke! I'm not scared of Cody, I Love him. It's just such a bizarre situation and this is the first time we've done anything alone since we escaped from here._

As if sensing Eric's thoughts, Jackson spoke to him, " Calm down. I swear, you're even more nervous than I am," a slight smile flickering across his attractive face. " I haven't forgotten what Mel and I told you. There just hasn't been time to be with either of you since that day. We have been kinda busy, y'know." Eric nodded in wry acknowledgment, busy was barely adequate to describe the level of activity since their encapturement, escape, the horrendous battle on the beach, dealing with their injuries and planning how to escape to yet another island, albeit on with a hope of being able to communicate with the outside world.

" Yeah, you have a point there," Eric replied, a wry smile on his face as he walked alongside his companion, "if we've been anything in the last week, it's definitely been busy." And indeed the seven surviving castaways had been very busy preparing their plans to escape to another island. It would have been difficult enough at full capability, but Eric and Jackson were both still weakened by the withdrawal effects of the drug Subversion and Nathan McHugh was only just starting to recover from his concussion dealt by the insane dead pilot, Captain Russell. The others were still surreptitiously watching the three older boys and to a lesser extent, Melissa Wu as well, as she had also been tormented by the dead man. After a few minutes walk around the decayed structure, the two teens were at the small maintenance shack for the decrepit Hotel Tango, the crumbling wooden shed visibly swaying in the tropic breeze. Nervously , Jackson opened the rusty door up, wincing as the elderly hinges screeched in protest.

" Well, what do you think Chief," Eric asked, looking over the taller young mans' shoulder into the gloomy shed, "is it small enough for us to move or is it another old hunkof junk like everything else here at this damn place ?"

" Well, they," he said , stressing the THEY, " are both kinda on the dinky side actually." came the calm baritone reply. " Look for yourself." he said, stepping back so Eric could see the shacks contents clearly.

" What do you mean …" Eric started , the dropped his voice for a moment in surprise for , just as Jackson had said, there were two smallish generators, both relatively new , sitting on the floor, with a trio of kerosene filled drums surrounding them. His voice nearly broke as he exclaimed: " Two of them? That psycho had TWO generators here?! What was he planning to do, stay here forever with us as his fucking sex slaves ?" he said in mixed anger and amazement.

_Apparently that was his plan, _Jackson thought to himself, carefully not saying it aloud to keep Eric from getting even more worked up. He was excitable at the best of times. The one thing Jackson didn't want right this minute was to have to calm Eric down, not when being here had his own nerves as tightly wound as they could possibly be. Aloud, he said:

" No time to try to figure that idiot pilot now , let's see if we can get these generators and the barrels moved around front. There's a couple of old gas cans by where the rowboat was burned that we may be able to use. We could take one with us when me and you go tomorrow to get Nathan and Taylor up here with the rest of us; it'd be nice to have fuel for a signal fire at night while we travel back and forth, he explained to the nodding Eric.

"It would be nice at that," Eric agreed , adding " I hope the others are having as much luck finding Cap'n Chaos's scraps as we are." He glanced towards the far side of the Hotel Tango for a moment before he and Jackson began to unravel the nest of wires and connections.

Three hours later, Eric Jeremy MaGorrill's hopes had been fulfilled as the five young people all met for their lunch in front of the ruins, a sizable amount of recovered materials now in front of them. Each of the others was giving their progress reports to Jackson as they ate a humble meal of water, bananas and a unusually large fish Jackson had caught that morning .

" He had to have been ripping off people for at least a couple of years, judging by some of the expiration dates on some of the food Lex and I found," redhaired Daley Marin was saying in between sips of water, " some of it has already expired, but Lex and I got about three months worth of food that should be good for anywhere from five to twelve months before it hits its out dates. That includes," she said with a grin, "over thirty MREs."

" That's great Daley," Jackson said sincerely, " if we get a boat built, we'll need food we don't have to cook. Good job, both of you." he said, smiling at Lex, who hugged his stepsister as Jackson turned to the strikingly attractive Melissa, sitting with a expectant look on her tanned face as he asked her for her news.

" Like Daley said, Russell must have been doing this for a while, because I had to leave at least half of the medical supplies I found alone just because they were out of date. However", she said, flashing her white teeth in a blinding smile, " what wasn't out of date included nearly three times the meds we had in our total survival gear from both planes, not just ours. I even found transfusion kits and actual surgical tools in two cases. If we do have an accident, at least we'll have enough supplies to have a chance at helping anyone out." She looked at Jackson with her dark eyes and asked the question on everyone mind. " What's next ?"

" Ok, we'll spend the next couple of hours getting everything squared away in the section of the Tango Ian was in; it's the soundest. After that, Eric and I will take the tent and we'll have about four hours of daylight to get started towards Taylor and Nathan. With any luck, we should get there at least three hours before dark tomorrow. Give us about two to three days, then we'll all be back together as one big group and we can start working on the boat, if Lex is ready to," he said, eying the young genius.

" I'm already getting the design worked up in my head, after seeing the remains of the burned boat. It'll be a lot of work though," he warned.

"Who's afraid of hard work ? " came Eric's petulant reply.

It took him thirty seconds to realize why everyone started laughing uproariously. Then he joined in himself with a rueful grin.

It took two minutes for the laughter to quit echoing in the jungle.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: Hopes and Dreams

Day 37: Morning, Hotel Tango

" Are you _finally_ ready to get going Eric," Jackson asked, exasperation plain in his baritone voice as he looked over at where the smaller teen was struggling to get his backpack adjusted, "we only have twelve or so hours of sunlight left." He shook his head he watched the ginger haired young man in question managed to finally get the backpack settled on his lean shoulders and looked over at where Lex, Mel and Daley were watching with various degrees of amusement. Lex in particular was visibly struggling not to laugh aloud as he gleefully gave Eric advice as he yet again nearly fell from the poor balance of his inexpertly arranged backpack.

" Eric! You really need to let one of us help you adjust either your straps or better yet, repack that pack of yours. It's going to keep doing that and you might get hurt," Lex said reasonably, bright white teeth showing as he grinned at Jackson, who had given up and sat down on a ancient crate, watching Eric struggle furiously with his load. As usual, he was not responding to the well meant advice with anything like grace.

"Will all of you just shut up for ten seconds and let me get this thing fixed my own way?! How can you expect me to get this damn pack fixed if all of you are either laughing at me or telling me what to do ?", he exclaimed heatedly, finally wrenching the backpack off and angrily flinging it to the ground. The blue backpack lay in the grass, seeming to silently mock the irate sixteen year old, who responded by flinging his battered straw hat at it in frustration. He put his hands on his narrow hips as he cocked his head and locked his hazel eyes with Jackson's aquamarine ones and said in resignation, " Fine! I give up; I messed it up, as usual. I was wrong and all of you were right! Someone just help me fix the stupid thing." Cody Jackson looked over Eric's shoulder and raised an eyebrow at Daley Marin, who shook her head as she walked over to try to salvage the wreck of a backpack.

As Daley helped Eric repack, with Lex going over to aid them as well, raven haired Melissa Wu walked over to Jackson, casually putting an arm around his hip as she quietly spoke to him. " Are you absolutely sure about this ? Eric won't be a whole lot of help to you one his own; he has all the good intentions and energy in the world, but he's still one of the two worst of us when it comes to traveling in the jungle. We've been here for over a month and he still can't even get his pack arranged without help," she said, giggling slightly as she heard Eric bickering with the two Marins.

" He'll do well enough. Besides, that's a big part of why I asked him to go with me instead of you, or Lex and Daley. He's got to get his self confidence up when it comes to surviving in the jungle. Besides", he added, putting an arm around Mel and looking into her heart shaped face, " we both know he won't let anyone down when it's rough, not if he can help it, referring to Eric's instrumental efforts in their escape from the deranged Captain Russell. And," his voice cracking slightly from tension, "I need some alone time with him, just like I plan to have some with you after we get back with Taylor and Nathan." Looking somewhat abashed, he nervously kicked at some rubble on the ground as Mel responded.

" I figured that was part of the reason Cody," she replied softly, leaning into his one armed embrace, "and it's not so much jealousy as it is concern for you. Both of you for that matter. None of the three of us has slept a night completely through in almost a week now and even though my withdrawal symptoms seem to be over, Eric's aren't and you know you're at least three times as bad as he is . I heard you crying again in your sleep last night." She reached up to cup Jackson's unshaven face and watched a tear form in the corner of his eye as he huskily said:

" I know," a single tear slowly dropping from his eyes, tracing a path down his stubbly cheek, " it still actually hurts, not having sex with you or him. I want it all the time," he said, pulling away from Mel, placing his hands on her shoulders, "but I know that it's induced by the f'ing Subversion crap, regardless of how my mind feels. The problem still is, I love both of you. I know it's not fair, that I should have made up my mind by now, but I love you both equally; not in the exact same ways, but equally. And I know how fucked up that sounds, but it's absolutely true," he said, a silent appeal in his voice as he gazed at Mel, who was swiftly wiping tears of her own as she looked at Cody, her thoughts racing.

_He really, really means that. He loves Eric just as much as he loves me and I truly don't think it's the Subversions effects, not anymore. Eric has rally changed since we dealt with Russell. And I don't hate him, how could I? He claims to be as attracted to me as he is to Jackson and I believe him. We seem to have a weird bond of our own, why else would I have kept trying to keep him out of trouble, even when he nearly got Jackson to run away from us all out of fear and jealousy . I really am worried about the two of them, how physically rundown they still are and more importantly, how their withdrawal symptoms are effecting them and especially, how Jackson is dealing with having killed Russell._

And in truth, all of the survivors of F29DWN had been concerned with Mel, Eric, and especially Jackson. The effects of the designer drug Subversion had been explained to them by Mel and it had shook them all severely. The drug had began innocently enough as a medicine to help anhedonia, a mental illness that prevented depressives from feeling pleasure normally. However, someone had had the idea to mix it with crack cocaine and Excstasy and had created a nightmarishly addictively drug that created monstrously warped sexual processes. In post adolescents, it caused whatever sexual practices one was performing to become obsessive, including the desire for that person and whomever they were having sex with at that time to be the Only one they wanted for sex. In preadolescents, it was far worse, because it caused a long term submissive fugue state, one in which a child would passively submit to ANYTHING that was done to them and want it again and again. The deviant Captain Russell had planned on using the drug to enslave the dead Abby Fujimoto and Lex Marin and had managed to get Mel, Eric and Jackson addicted to it when he captured them.

The madman had already hooked Ian Milbauer and Jory Twist, both slain by him, to the drug and had used it in small amounts on Mel and Abby for his twisted desires. Mel's use had resulted in lesbian sex with Abby, having analingus performed on her by Eric, and most disturbing by far, her using a strap-on on Cody Jackson. Repeatedly. However, she had had the smallest dose by far of the others and the worst of the physical withdrawal was behind her. Not so for the other two survivors, Eric and Jackson.

Eric's addiction was now to performing oral and anal sex on Jackson, as the pilot had forced them to do repeatedly. Unfortunately for Eric, he'd also been brutally raped and beaten unconscious by the Captain and he seemed to be fighting a serious case of sadomasochism as a result. He had also inadvertently destroyed a rowboat Russell had found and had repeatedly castigated himself for it, almost to the point of obsession. And Jackson was far worse than even Eric. Where as Eric woke up every night either pleading not to be shot by Russell or raped again, Jackson would be screaming at Russell, begging for Mel and Eric's lives, or most humiliating of all, be begging to be penetrated by Mel or Eric. Most disturbing of all, his waking behavior had begun to frighten everyone.

Three time in as many days, he'd shown up with mysterious cuts on his arms and what looked like rope burns on his neck. When questioned by anyone but Mel or Eric, he'd simply claim an accident working on their salvage expedition. With the two of them, he'd simply say , " Don't worry, I'm just coping." And if anyone persisted in questioning him, he'd inevitably grab a knife or spear and head off, not returning until nearly dark and always with bloodshot eyes, as if he'd cried the whole time he was out of sight. And with even more cuts and bruises than when he'd left.

After five minutes of helping Eric struggle with his pack, the two Marins and he walked over to where Mel and Cody stood. Eric's head was once again covered by his hat as he sheepishly mumbled his thanks to Lex and Daley before speaking to Jackson, a slight flush from his tantrum still on his narrow face.

" I guess I'm ready to go at last Chief, with a little help from my friends," nodding at the grinning Lex and Daley with what might almost be considered gratitude in his voice. " Whenever you're good." He reached out and gave Mel a brief hug, to her immense surprise. " I'll try to take care of him for you Mel,", he said, his tenor voice rough with suppressed emotions.

" I know you'll do your best Eric," Mel said, withdrawing from his embrace as she spoke. " Seriously, both of you stay careful and in one piece. We'd really be in it deep if anything happened to either of you. Keep to the schedule Daley and Jackson made so we know about how long the trip there and back will take," she reminded them unnecessarily, absently brushing her hands on her faded jeans as she walked over beside Lex and put her hands on his shoulders as the stalwart eleven year old spoke to the two young men as well.

" Both of you guys be careful, please," he said in a strangely somber voice as he walked over to hug each of them. After letting go of Jackson, he added , " Just remember, all of our hopes and dreams depend on this trip and our getting off of this island."

_Man, the little guy is really serious about that, _Jackson thought to himself as he reached out to tousle Lexs' dark hair briefly before turning to Daley.

" Day, ready to take charge one more time ?" he asked, a wry grin momentarily quirking on his face at the semi-intentional reminder of Daleys' largely unsuccessful term as leader.

Daley rana hand through her red hair as she struck a nonchalant pose and answered breezily: " Oh, give me a couple of days and I'll have Mel and Lex whipped back into proper shape."

" Does the word "mutiny" have any meaning for you, sister dear?" Lex replied with a grin as Mel gave a overly dramatic groan.

Within five minutes, Cody Jackson and Eric McGorill had faded into the jungle , their trek to Camp 29 Down underway at last.


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter Three : Truths_

_Day 37: Late Afternoon_

_Ten hours and roughly four incredibly rugged miles later, the two teens had decided it was time to make their resting place for the night. Eric had spotted a rather small cove, with a reasonably flat rise at its head and Jackson had pronounced it suitable enough for their tent to be pitched for the night. After twenty minutes of fighting with the tent, it was at last raised and a half hour later, Eric had gotten a small fire going when Jackson returned from the nearby jungle with a coconut for the two of them to share with their camp food, rescued from the pilot's stash at the Hotel Tango. After breaking through the layer of husk on the large fruit and taking a sip, Jackson passed it to Eric, who noisily slurped at it while Jackson sat down on the sand near the fire and began to talk to his companion._

" _We made a little better time than I expected, even after the delays this morning," the tall teen said, snorting softly at Eric's look of disgust at the reminder of his struggles with packing that had cost them at least an hour of daylight, " you did find us a pretty nice spot to camp at though. Man, that breeze feels good." Cody sighed as the cool wind lapped at the nape of his sweaty neck, absently rubbing at several long half healed scrapes on his arms. " Oh yeah," he said in an afterthought, "I got us a couple of washrags from the Tango, if you want to get some of the stench off of you before we sack out," silently hoping Eric would take the hint without becoming offended. It was sad but true that poor Eric suffered from rather bad b.o. after any real exertion and the supply of deodorant was a thing of the past. Fortunately, a case of rather cheap soap had been found with the other supplies and Jackson had thought to bring a few bars for their use on the trip._

" _Getting this muck off of me would be nice," Eric said gratefully, standing up to peel his sweaty red tee off of his lean torso, dropping it onto his pack with visible relief. Jackson offered up a faded blue washcloth and a bar of soap to Eric, who leaned over and took them into his dirty hands. He wet the rag with water from his water bottle and began to clean up while Jackson resumed talking as he too striped his shirt off and began to wash off._

" _I figured we'll go to sleep in another hour or so and then if we don't have any unexpected difficulties, we'll be back at Camp 29 Down by early afternoon tomorrow. I just hope Nate and Taylor are both doing ok." He grinned at Eric as he gave his brown haired head one of those oddly endearing shakes he was prone to as he said in an amused tone, " Taylor as a nurse, who would have thought it ?"_

_Eric grinned back as he answered laughingly, " Not me ! Right after we got here, I scraped my back on the wing of the plane getting her some tanning lotion. I thought she'd slap me when I asked her to put some antibiotic cream on it. She told me no self respecting germs would want to touch me!" He had finished washing and had now sat back down on the sand by the small fire, stretching out with his arms behind him as he watched Jackson wash off. A sliver of lust flickered through him at the sight of Jackson half naked, however, Eric brutally suppressed it as he realized just how many fresh cuts, bruises and scrapes were on Jackson as the other man turned his back to Eric momentarily before sitting down on the opposite side of the fire. Sudden concern about Jackson, his mood and actions of the last few days prompted him to hesitantly express his concerns._

" _That's getting to be a good sized collection of cuts and nicks on you there Chief. That's not like you. You used to never show any signs of wear and tear like that," he said quietly, hoping Jackson would react less vehemently than he had to similar comments earlier in the week. He gulped slightly as Jacksons' normally expressive face went wooden and his aquamarine eyes narrowed as he locked them into Eric's hazel ones for ten long seconds before slowly replying ._

" _Eric, I know you don't mean any harm , that you're asking because you're concerned, but" he said in an unmistakable command tone , " I don't need any babying , not even from you or Mel. Please."_

" _No." Eric replied stubbornly plowing on , regardless of the angry look Jackson now had on his face. " You're way too good at this survival shit to be getting hurt like this and especially this often. Dammit, I'm not stupid Cody! Those cuts look self inflicted ; you're not the first cutter I've ever met," he said heatedly, rising to his feet as Jackson shot to his own._

" _Enough!" roared Jackson furiously, " I said I don't want to talk about it , not even with you! Damn you Eric, I don't want to fight with you over this but we will if you don't let it drop." The taller man walked angrily to the edge of the clearing, leaning up against a tree facing the incipient sunset over the beautiful ocean view. Jackson pounded a fist into his hip three times before turning to face the white faced Eric, who was visibly trembling with emotion as Jackson spoke to him again._

" _I know you mean well," he said, fighting to keep the heat from his voice, " I do, but I still have to deal with everything I've done in the last week. You know that I still can't sleep at night without waking up screaming. Or without seeing that bastard Russells' face laughing at me while he does something perverted to you or Mel or me in my nightmares." Tears were at the edges of the young mans eyes as he spoke now, ever more softly. " The worst part is, I have dreams that are scaring the shit out of me over things I haven't even done, things that I'd die before I'd do in real life." He sank to his knees as he continued speaking, " Things keep going through my head that I just __can't_ ever say out loud, no without losing all of you, ' cause you'd all think I was really going crazy if you knew what was racing in my head all of the time now. The freaky sex and killing that psycho are just the beginning of it all." He put his light brown haired head in his lap and grew quiet, the only sounds now coming from him unmistakable sobbing noises as his broad shoulders moved up and down slightly.

Eric sat there stunned. He'd suspected Jackson was holding back a great deal of turmoil from the rest of the group, but not to this extent. Even after all they had been through together, even after Jackson had been forced to kill the insane Bob Russell, he'd never acted like he had any fears about how the others would treat him for his actions. He slowly stood up and walked over to where Jackson was now sitting at the base of the tree, his sandy brown head between his knees and sank down to the ground beside him. He hesitantly put a hand on Jackson's right shoulder and began to speak to the trembling man.

" Cody, God knows I'm bad about keeping things in until I explode, but you gotta know by now that none of us, especially me, Mel or Taylor, are ever turn on you. Not after everything you've done for us. Tell me what's going on man. It'll just make it worse if you bottle it all up."

Head still down, Jackson rasped, " Eric, I just can't. I know I _need_ to talk to someone, but I'm afraid you'll be scared or disgusted afterwards…" 

" There's nothing you could ever say that would makes any of us feel that way," Eric said reasonably, withdrawing his hand and moving around to sit in front of Jackson, setting his hat on the sand between them. " C'mon, can't you at least try to tell me what's going on, please ? I'm worried about you Chief," he asked plaintively . He waited patiently for a reply.

Jackson sat still for a half minute or so. Eric was on the verge of trying to coax Jackson again when Cody roughly cleared his throat, raised his head and started to speak, rubbing at his reddened eyes as he did.

" I've been having dreams almost every time I close my eyes. Sometimes their about what you'd expect, about Russell and all the stuff we did on the Subversion. Only in the dreams, it's even worse. I'm actually _begging_ for more Subversion, for more sex." His face slowly reddened as he continued speaking.

" It gets even worse. Sometimes in the dreams…" his voice broke momentarily. He cleared his throat and continued, voice wavering slightly as he did, " sometimes, I don't even get drugged. I do everything stone cold sober. In those dreams, I _beg_ for everything that happens to me. And the stuff Russell does in those type of dreams to me, it's stuff I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. Really sick, demented shit like " water sports" and stuff like that. Stuff that in real life I'd never do. Stuff I'd beat someone to death for if they did it to me in real life. And I wake up feeling so fucking dirty and ashamed from it, I almost don't feel like I deserve to be alive." he finished in a rush, fresh tears gleaming in the corners of his turquoise eyes.

Tears were in the corner of Eric's eyes as well as he listened to Jackson speak. He had a cold lump in his chest as he digested what Cody had said. 

He spoke slowly to Jackson:

" Cody, you know better than that man. I don't know why you're feeling guilty about dreams. You know that Subversion crap really fucked us all up.

I've had some sick dreams since then too. Even one or two where me and you were doing sick shit like you said to one another. And," he stammered slightly as he went on, "I've even been turned on when I woke up by a couple of them." he admitted, his own face blood red from embarrassment at his own admission.

" You too," Jackson said, surprise and a sliver of what could almost be called hope in his voice, " you really have had dreams like that too ?"

" Yeah man," Eric replied, wiping a tear off his cheek as he looked back at Jackson, "almost every night since it all happened."

Jackson leaned back against the palm tree and breathed noisily, then exhaled sharply as a torrent of emotion crashed through him and forced even more revelations from him in a flood.

" Yeah, I guess you, of all of us come closest to knowing how I feel, but dammit, there's some much more and it's even worse! I have dreams where I get into fights with you or Nathan where I wind up hurting, even killing one of you! Or where I even rape you or Mel or Taylor! And I'd die before I die that for real, you know that!" he shouted, his tone pleading as he grabbed Eric shoulder and begged: " I'd never hurt any of you. I would rather just kill myself than ever hurt any of you guys, I'd never force myself on any of you. But the dreams keep getting worse and worse . I've even had dreams where I hurt Lex for Christ's sakes. I haven't had any where I did anything sexual with him, thank God, because then I really _would_ go crazy from guilt! I'd deserve to die if I had a fucked up thought like that in my head!". He collapsed sobbing into Eric's slight frame, deep, deep harsh breath shaking his form as Eric's thoughts raced wildly.

_No fucking wonder he's been so moody lately! He's honestly afraid he's losing his mind. We thought his withdrawal was over; obviously, it's not. _

Aloud, he said : " Cody, you know none of us think you're some sort of monster! Nobody that saw how you fell apart after killing Russell, even after all he'd done to you could doubt that. Shit Jackson, that Subversion shit had us hallucinating! And you remember what Ian said, it's effects last months, obviously including the nightmares. You're driving yourself crazy for stuff you either haven't done or wouldn't do. Man, none of us think you're like that at all!"

"BUT I AM STARTING TO!" Jackson roared in anguish, dropping to his knees on the sand once more .

_How the hell do I convince him that he's not a damn freak ?! _Eric thought to himself frantically as he went to one knee and put an arm around Jackson's shaking shoulders. _I __**KNOW, **__not just think, know, he'd never hurt any of us. Especially not Lex; he treats him like he was his own little brother!_

Eric grew quiet and still. His arm still around Cody's shoulder as he tried to think through all of the recent events and just what could've gotten this obsession into Jackson's mind. They had both been traumatized by the drugs, torture and repeated rapes, that was self-evident. The necessary killing of Captain Russell by Jackson was obviously a big part of the problem, as well. Eric supposed that some of it was probably due to Jackson possibly feeling he'd failed the others somehow by their being captured in the first place. God knows he'd frequently show a protective streak of the others before. Then, Eric suddenly remembered something and silently cursed himself for a fool.

_I can't believe I almost forgot just how scared Jackson was that we'd all turn on him when I told everyone about his video diary! The poor guy was so convinced we'd never trust him again, once we found out he'd been in a run in with the police, that someone got hurt in that fight he was involved in, that he ran away.__And_, he thought with a deep pang of guilt and shame, _I __**was**__ afraid of him, then. Before we really got to know him, to see just how good a guy he really is. But the point is, he felt guilty about the guy who got hurt, guilty enough to hide from his only friends here. He just went through something a thousand times worse! No f'ing wonder he's flippin' out._

Eric took a deep breath to steady himself, said a silent prayer for his friend and himself, and began to talk earnestly to the closest true friend he'd ever known .

" Jackson, what's really eating you is guilt. Nothing but guilt, and it's not just over the dreams, it's not even over everything that's happened here on Reality Island, or even the mess you have to face when we get home. It's all of it. And more."

Jackson turned a tear stained face up at Eric and rasped: " What do you mean more? Don't tell me I have even more shit to feel guilty about!"

" No man!" Eric interjected swiftly, afraid Jackson was misunderstanding him, " it's nothing you can help even if you wanted to, it's about your not being there for your mom, about the fact that you know she's worried sick about the fight at home and about you being missing, maybe even dead. Cody," he pulled his hat off as he spoke swiftly, voice trembling with the effort to project his sincerity, " we all feel some of that, even me, and my parents were ready to file for divorce just before we left!"

" But it's not the same Eric!" Jackson said fiercely, " You saved my life, and I love you for it, but I let you guys down, I let my mom down, I let Big Jay down and he nearly died. I failed you , Mel, Ian, Abby, Jory, in a fucked up way, I even let myself down by killing Russell. At least four people died because of what I did or didn't do!"

Eric retorted angrily: " You can't have it both fucking ways Cody! You weren't responsible for a damn thing Russell did! You put your ass on the line to help us then, just like you've done time after time since we got stuck on the damned island. Big Jay lived, so'd me, Mel, Lex, Nathan, Daley, and Taylor. And if you want to help your mom, then be the man I fucking well fell in love with, pull your shit together and help us get the hell off this rock and lead us back home!" he jumped to his feet, fist clenched, a defiant, challenging look on his face even as his knees threatened to buckle from strain.

" But, what about .." Jackson started , only to be cut off.

" No damn buts! Either you're the guy who's helped keep us alive, or you're not; one thing you'll never be is a monster! You're the best person I know and I'd trust you with my life, even my soul, man." Eric flushed again in the rapidly fading light. Almost meekly, he continued, " I mean it, and I truly believe Mel , Lex and Taylor feel the same. Nathan looks up to you too and even Daley respects you. Believe in us. Believe that all six of us just can't all be wrong about you. Believe in yourself, too. You helped taylor to see past herself. You taught Mel to stand up for herself. You even taught me how to be brave. Face the truth man. You're not a monster."

Jackson asked quietly: " Then what am I ?"

" Our hero. My hero. The one person I hope will always be my friend, at least."

" I'm no hero Eric."

" You do what has to be done, even if you get hurt doing it. You never put yourself above others, even when they let you down. And nobody that knows you ever doubts how much you care. You're our hero. You're my hero. I love you." Tears fell down Eric's face in the last few moments of sunlight as he finished with a few more words.

" Please quit blaming yourself and hurting yourself. All it's doing is hurting the ones who love you. Please."

Jackson walked over to Eric. He embraced his friend in his strong, scarred arms. Held him close, then gently brushed his lips with Erics' and said:

" I'll do my best. That's all I can do."

"That's all any of us want." Eric said.

" I love you Eric."

" I love you Cody."

The two men kissed as the sky finally faded to black, the gentle rumbling of the waves the only noise on their isolated spot on the beach.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Dangers and Pleasures

Day 37: Near Mid-night

Nearly thirty miles away and nearly three miles beneath the dark Pacific water, the slumbering leviathan lay , nestled in a two thousand foot deep crevasse in the ancient ocean floor. If there had been light to show it, the monstrous creatures hide would have shown almost a dozen wounds in it, poisonous fluids dripping slowly from them. The sheer scale of the behemoths size would have been shown if it had stood, for it would have been over a quarter as tall as the trench was deep; yet for all that, at five hundred feet tall, it was only a juvenile of its species. Only a week ago, it had been assaulted by almost half of the surviving Pacific submarine fleet. It had destroyed ten of the thirteen submarines, but only at excruciating pain to itself.

As the monster shifted in it's sleep, a dozen of small, parasitic creature somewhat similar in shape to it detached from it. They were also smaller than average, around the size of a collie. Yet for all their lack of size, their bodies contained venom that was almost invariably fatal to their prey.

Which was anything unfortunate enough to cross their path.

The dozen monsters slowly drifted in a western direction, in the path of a small island chain long thought deserted by the U.S. military, yet most definitely inhabited now.

Day 38: Daybreak

The two teenaged men were both still emotionally and physically wrung out from their talk from the night before. They still hadn't gotten up, although both had been aware that neither was asleep for almost an hour now. Finally, Jackson took the initiative and spoke to Eric.

" Are you awake Eric ?"

"Mnnn… just barely," was the answer.

Jackson heard the other teenagers sleeping bag shift, then the unmistakable sound of a zipper sliding as Eric flung his cover back irritably, cinnamon hair askew. _Man, he's starting to need a haircut badly, _Jackson thought, _his hair is almost into his eyes. Of course, not many hair salons here on "Reality island", like he calls it._

Eric sat up yawning, his sleeping bag slithering off of his shoulders, showing his lean but firm chest and flat stomach. He stretched his long arms wide and jumped in alarm as he accidentally hit Jackson squarely on the bridge of his nose, causing the other male to bellow in protest.

" Watch what you're doin', jackass!" Jackson said hotly, cupping his injured nose with his hands as faint star exploded in his head from the pain.

"Dammit, if my nose is broken, yours'll be next!"

Eric threw his sleeping bag back and got to his knees to try to see just how much damage he'd done. Which wasn't easy, because every time he tried to move Cody's hands to look, he'd pull away with a sharp grunt. Finally, Eric had to literally pry Jacksons hands away from his nose. Wheezing from the considerable strain, he grunted:

" Will you please let me look at your damn nose ?! Ahhghh!" he squawked as Jackson suddenly gave him an open handed jab to his own nose.

"See how you like it asshole," Jackson cawed mischievously, " hurts, doesn't it ?" he drawled, sarcasm dripping even as he grinned at his friend.

" Seems like you're not the only one on this island that knows how to fake an injury to get what you want from someone," he said, a smirk plain on his attractive, unshaven face.

Eric gingerly felt his nose as the waves of pain mercifully began to recede. Scowling at the grinning Jackson, he muttered: " And just what the fuck were you trying to accomplish?"

" This." And in a flash he'd cupped Eric's face and kissed him hard and full on his lips, then the pressure increased and Jackson unabashedly slid his tongue through Erics lips. Eric hesitated for a half second, at the most, then followed suit, his own tongue piercing Jackson's full lips, their tongues meeting. Their arms went around one another as they continued their kiss, the two young bodies slowly laying back down on the unfurled sleeping bags.

After a few minutes, Eric reluctantly withdrew long enough to ask:

" Are you sure this is ok ? Doing this? What about Mel?

" Yeah," Jackson answered huskily, "I _am _dating _both_ of you. And I have already been just about as intimate with each of you as possible." He sat up and peeled his gray t shirt off as he spoke, " Besides, I made love to Mel once, in private. I need to even things up with you." he said simply, his cross bouncing off of his toned chest as he began to wriggled out of his constraining pants, slowed slightly by the rampaging erection that he finally released as his camo shorts finally came free. Nude and unashamed, he explained briefly.

" The day Russell … well, the day he really hurt you, while we were alone, Mel and I made love.. She wanted me to be her first. And I was. But the damn Subversion was already messing with my head by then." He looked down at his lap, at a loss for words momentarily.

" What happened," Eric asked evn as he stripped, wincing slightly as his own erection snagged on his blue shorts as he pulled them off his narrow hips, " I mean, what did the stuff do?"

Cody sat up and exhaled slowly, cocking his head in his inimitable way before saying, " Just what Russell wanted, when he made certain I didn't cum unless something was up my ass." He exhaled sharply again as the admission came: " Poor Mel had to practically fist me before I got off."

He ran a hand through his light brown hair as he plowed on. " We never talked about it afterwards. But you should know, I did admit to her that we'd probably wind up having sex on this trip. No," suddenly, his face went still and he put a warm, large hand on Eric's cheek, "No, not having sex, making love. Because that's what you do with a lover, and that's what you two are, my lovers. And that's enough talking for now."

Jackson went into action without any reservations. He put one hand on Erics chest and pushed his on his back while he gripped the younger man's hard, hot eight inch penis with the other as he pushed him flat on the sleeping bags. Jackson moved his hand from Eric's chest and cupped the other boy's balls gently as he ran his tongue up and down the hardened shaft, swirling his tongue at the tip, flicking at the slit, to Eric's delight.

Eric moaned as Jackson continued with his oral ministrations. Now he was engulfing the head into his hungry mouth, releasing his cock and balls and sliding his hands un Eric to cup his tight ass. His brown haired head bobbed up and down as he suckled, finally draing his breath and sucking the penis all the way to the root, Eric's sparse pubic hair tickling Jackson's chin.

Jackson winced slightly as Eric reached up and grabbed his hair with both hands, forcing him to move his head up and down even faster. _Oh man, this feel so GOOD, _Eric though to himself as Cody applied ever more suction as his lips and tongued worked the engorged flesh,_ I needed this so bad, but I didn't know what to say, what to do. And I was scared Cody didn't want me anymore. Boy, I'm glad to be wrong ._ Eric gasped aloud as Jackson suddenly sent two long fingers sliding firmly into his clenched anus. Eric's hardon waxed even larger as the sensation coursed through his excited body.

Reaching up to tap Jackson's shoulder, Eric spun around on the bags until Cody's lap was in front of his. Without hesitation, Eric reached out and firmly gripped the seven and half inch staff bobbing there and his tongue arced out to lick the moisture seeping from the thick head, eliciting a moan of pleasure from Cody, who swiftly adjusted his position so they could sixty-nine with ease. Within a half minute, the two lean forms were piston in the respective erections in and out of each others mouths, Jackson on top, Eric on bottom. Each was desperately trying to bring the maximum of pleasure to the other. Eric, realizing Cody's own reluctance to express his special need had taken the initiative and had two finger from each hand firmly entrenched in Cody's tight anus while Cody was relentlessly slapping eric's ass or twisting and tweaking his sensitive nipples, almost to the point of causing actual damage, which was perfectly fine with Eric, judging from the way he sucked even harder each time Cody did so. And adding another finger from each hand into Cody's achingly empty anus. Freeing his head, Jackson pulled Eric from his own penis and fell off of him and over onto his back and spread his legs, elevating his hips as he did in invitation.

An invitation Eric had no intention of refusing as he leaned over and grabbed Cody's long, slightly hairy legs. He pulled them onto his sweaty shoulders as he lowered his head into Cody Jackson's most private region.

_I never thought I'd __**want **__to do this , not to any guy alive, _Eric though briefly before surrendering to the moment again, _but man, I want to rim the hell outta him before I fuck that fine ass! _Putting action to thoughts, Eric pulled Cody's pink anus slightly open with his fingers and let his tongue reach out to taste the flesh there. The tart taste and the deep breaths he heard, combined with the shudder of pleasure going through Jackson because of his actions fanned Eric's desire even more as he put his tongueand two fingers as deep into his companion as possible, a grin on his face as he heard Cody's faint, " Oh God yes."

After a couple of more minutes, the pressure in Eric's tension tightened testicles was almost painful. His straightened up and grunted at Jackson as he got in position. Jackson grabbed his own penis with one hand and Eric's with the other, guiding it to his spit moistened anus with a enigmatic smile at his lover as Eric smiled back and slowly sank his eight inched deep into Jackson, shuddering as his hot flesh went into the warm, wet tightness. He stroked slowly at first, then sped up as Cody cupped his ass, sending two fingers probing into Eric's own chute, probing him in rhythm with Eric's thrusts into his own ass.

Ten minutes late, Eric was on his tiptoes, slamming as deeply and swiftly as possible into Cody, both bodies dripping with sweat in the tropic humidity. Jackson had four finger in Eric and was about to add two more when Eric finally started to hit his climax. He was almost over the edge when Cody wrenched free and grabbed Eric's hard rod with both hands, jacking it furiously. Eric was already too close to stop if he'd tried, his hips snapped and three jets of pearl white semen sprayed right into Cody's wide open mouth, part dribbling down his chin as he locked turquoise eyes into Eric's hazel ones and slowly, deliberately swallowed Eric's load, then with equal deliberation, licked his lips clean.

Eric's chest heaved still from the exertions as he gasped out :

" Why'd you do that man ? It wasn't necessary."

" because I though it might turn you on, and because the thought of doing it turned me on. It did turn you on didn't it?" he asked almost in a challege, squinting his eyes slightly.

" Ohh yeah," Eric answered, wiping sweat and other fluids off of his forehead, hair in his eyes again, "I mean, I wouldn't have asked you to do it, but I enjoyed it."

" That's why I did it. But now that you got off, I believe it's my turn." He grinned at Eric and said, " Think of anything you can do to surprise me?"

Eric was silent for a moment, then Jackson saw the familiar twinkle in the hazel eyes as Eric spoke;

" Oh, I may have a trick or two I'd do. If you behave."

" I can hardly wait."

" Oh, no waiting needed Chief. Let's get **really **freaky!"

Cody was amazed at just how much pure evil Eric could put in his voice at times, but even more amazed at how much more turned on he was after hearing him.


	5. Chapter 5

_Chapter Five_

_Happy Reunion_

_Day 38 _

_Morning: Eric and Jackson's Campsite_

_Never thought I'd get __**this**__ type of view of Eric when I met him, _Cody Jackson thought as he pried Eric's buttocks apart and began to slowly tongue the exposed anus in front on him. He slid his tongue gently up and down the furry furrow before him, fighting a grin as Eric writhed in pleasure before the older teens onslaught. Jackson gave a reluctant last lick before rising to his knees behind his friend, who was already on his own knees and ready for penetration. Which Jackson did with pleasure, his seven and a half inch long and very thick penis sliding with ease into Eric's hot passage.

_God, I'd almost forgotten just how tight his ass is! _Cody tensed in delight as Eric wriggled his small ass against his own flat stomach, shamelessly backing up for ever deeper stroking from the more than willing Cody, who began to pump faster. Not wanting to deprive Eric of any pleasure, Cody reached under and grabbed Eric's even longer, but slimmer cock in his calloused left hand and began to masturbated his him sync with his thrusts into the oh so tight channel. The only three sounds for the next few minutes were their harsh breathing, the slick, moist sound of Eric's dick being jacked and the soft slapping of Jackson's heavy balls against the hot skin of Eric's parted buttocks as Cody plunged in deep, then withdrew to the very tip before slamming his erection in again and again.

"Tell me when you're gonna nut Chief," Eric wheezed in between stokes, his head on the sleeping bag and a look of ecstasy on his face as Cody grazed his prostate again and again. He grunted in a mix of pleasure and pain as Jackson stabbed even deeper as he leaner over to nip at Eric's ear as he released his cock, wrapping his strong arms around Eric's small hips and rammed so hard Eric saw stars as his 144 pound body was actually lifted by Jackson's piledriver like pistoning. After a few seconds, he grunted roughly:

"Oh Christ, here it comes!" he grated, nearly spilling his seed as Eric pulled free roughly and unexpectedly. The smaller boy snatched at a wet washcloth he'd placed nearby, reaching out with it to snare Jackson's throbbing cock. He swiftly washed Jackson's cock before unceremoniously deepthroating it, his hands gripping Cody's ass, fingers piercing his hole as Jackson snapped his hips, golden brown pubes at Eric's nose as he cupped the ginger haired teen, cum gushing into the open , firmly suckling mouth.

Jackson let out a whistling sigh as the climax shook his 160 pound frame, stroking Eric's neck as he greedily slurped at Jackson's cock, then slid his tongue up and down the still hard staff, then suckling the drained balls.

Eric rocked back onto his heels, a satisfied smirk on his attractive face as he unnecessarily asked, " Good enough for you, Chief ?"

" Hell yeah." was the reply as Jackson shudder and then sat beside his friend. " Well, I admit it, I don't think I could've done that as easily as you did."

" Well, I would like to brush my teeth…, but it was worth the look on your face!" Eric playfully punched Cody's arm before stretching out, absolutely heedless of his nudity in front of Jackson, who was casually enjoying the skin show. Eric spoke up, " Well, I'd say we both need a good bath before we head out, don't you?"

Jackson shook his head in agreement as he continued looking at the slim form in front of him. Suddenly, he visibly tensed, spinning towards the flap of the tent. Alarmed, Eric leaned up and was about to ask what was wrong when Jackson's face split in a smile as he said :

" Race you to the water! Last one in gets a facial!" Then he streaked out of the tent.

" Oh no, what a horrible threat! I'd rather be beaten up!" Eric said caustically as he lurched after the other man with a raucous laugh.

Early Afternoon: Camp 29 Down

Taylor Hagen's voice rose steadily in volume as her strident commands continued to split the warm Pacific air.

" Harder Nathan. Do it harder! Hurry up and bust a nut!"

Nathan McHugh's baritone could be heard plainly, even to his rapid breathing .

" I can't do it any harder! Not unless you want to have white cream all over your ass!"

" Just hurry up and bust one!" she screeched in exasperation.

With a groan, Nathan did just that, slamming the coconut down on the rod they'd placed in the ground for that purpose. The half Caucasian/half African American's springy hair swayed as he raised the thick skinned coconut high and slammed it down for what felt like the hundredth time. Mercifully, the incredibly tough inner shell finally showed a hairline crack in it. Taking care not to spill the precious fluid inside, he turned to the pretty blonde sitting beside him, her eyes glittering with delight as he smiled back in triumph. Showing his inate courtesy, he offered Taylor the first sip from the fruit, which she accepted graciously.

" Thank you," she said with feeling, " if it had just been me, I'd have thrown that one back into the jungle. I can't believe how hard it is to bust a nut !"

Heroically fighting down an enormous guffaw at Taylor's choice of words, Nathan said: " Oh, it's just a matter of getting your thrusts just right." Then, he couldn't help it. He fell over on his side laughing as the double entendre suddenly registered on Taylor just as she took another sip. The precious juice sprayed into the air as Taylor started to laugh herself.

" Hey," Nathan coughed out between laughs, " I though you had better manners! Any well bred woman would have swallowed, not spit! Oww!" He threw his hands up to protect his injured head as Taylor flung a shard of husk at him, nearly hitting him.

The two teens sat talking amiably near the battered fuselage of 29DWN, the elderly DeHaviland Heron that had brought them to the island, seemingly years ago. Nathan would reach up from time to time to pick at the bandage wrapped around his head, injured in a vicious attack by the deranged pilot. He cursed mildly as he attempted to get the cursed thing in something approaching a comfortable position, a task that was beginning to seem impossible.

" The damn thing is getting on my nerves! It makes me look like a flashback to the seventies," he mumbled, still fumbling with it as Taylor stood up and walked over to try to help. Gingerly, she reached out and tried adjusting it for Nathan. When he relaxed slightly, she knew it was as good as it was going to get. She sat back down and let out a gusty sigh.

" I wonder how Jackson and the others are doing ? Someone should have been here by now, shouldn't they ?" she asked, staring off into the nearby jungle as if she expected a full blown rescue party to appear at any moment. If so, it was a hope Nathan fervently shared as well.

He looked over and spoke in a conciliatory tone to his one time girlfriend:

" You've gotta be patient Taylor. If they're anywhere near the schedule we worked out, Jackson should be here in a few hours or tomorrow morning. His signal fire last night seemed kinda far off," he admitted, suppressing his own mild twinge of concern, " but you know him. He'll be here as soon as he can." And that was how he felt. Despite a rocky start to his own friendship with Jackson, even after he'd once thought they'd actually comes to blows over a minor misunderstanding, he'd come to have an immense deal of respect for their two time leader. Jackson seemed simply incapable of not giving his absolute best, a trait Nathan shared, although not nearly as successfully.

" I know, I know," the slender girl said, poking at the embers of their fire with a stick, " if there's one thing I've had to learn here, other than to put up with_ no comforts whatsoever and no privacy," _she emphasized, " it's patience."

Nathan looked at her intently for a moment, then his deep sense of honesty compelled him to say earnestly: " You're not being fair to yourself. When we crashed here, I expected you to either become a hag from Hell or shut down completely and you didn't do either." Briefly, the image of the one day when Taylor _had_ shut down flickered through his head. " At least, " he amended, " not for long."

Taylor rolled her eyes as the same memory obviously crossed her mind.

" Well, nice to see I surprised you then," she said in mock anger, then shot a smile at him, her dimples showing, " I'm not totally useless."

" I never said you were completely useless. Totally clueless, yes, even brainless, but not useless, " he broke off as the stick that had been in Taylors' hand whistled just over his head. He ducked, then let out a groan as the sudden movement caused his concussed head to let out a throb of pain, momentarily sending a green wave of nausea through him.

Hearing the sound, Taylor was immediately contrite, going over to put and arm around him as he lightly touched the back of his throbbing head. He swallowed several time as the nausea made bile rise briefly. After a moment, he gently moved Taylor's arm off and struggled to his feet, gagging slightly as the taste in his mouth fortunately receded. He drew in a deep, cleansing breath as Taylor hovered anxiously beside him. She reached down and felt of his forehead, then shook her blonde mane.

" You're still running some fever Nathan. Why don't you try to lay down for a little while ; I'll fish for supper while you rest."

" No!" he protested, rising to his feet slowly, " I can't just keep laying around all the time while you look after me Taylor. It's not fair to you."

" Nathan," she said reasonably, " you know you're not over your brain bruise yet, you know you still get sick if you have to bend over or move fast. Just let me take care of you, so you can get better."

Nathan sighed in resignation. The irritating thing was that she was right. He might, at best, be back up to 50 percent. The truth was, as Daley had repeatedly pointed out to him, he'd come closer than anyone, even Jackson, to being killed by Russell's attack on Camp 29 Down. He'd laughingly beaten him unconscious with ease, even after letting Nathan get in three shots free. The smelly behemoth had taken Nathan's best punches and not even been fazed. And the three blows Russell had dealt out had managed to black Nathan's right eye, split his lower lip and, far more seriously, given him a not-so-mild concussion. Even now, a week later, he was still having nausea, fever and occasional double vision. And even if he doing far better than he'd been a week ago, he was painfully aware of how far he still had to go to be fully recovered.

To be honest, he was surprised still at the changes in Taylor since their arrival here over five weeks ago. What he thought of now as the "Old Taylor" had been a hideously spoiled, totally self centered, manipulative, scheming little bitch, and that had comprised her good points. She'd also been vindictive, completely clueless and deceitful. After all of the time here, and especially once Jackson had taken her under his wing, she'd begun to change for the better. The brawl on the beach had seemingly made the change far more pronounced, because she'd not only become as good as any one else at the camp chores, she was almost as good a nurse as Melissa. And where once she'd thought about no one but herself, now she seemed to put everyone else's needs above her own. 

" All right, all right. Since you're ready to nag at me until you get your way, something I remember well from when we dated, I'll go ahead and surrender now."

Taylor giggled at his sour expression, " You should know better than to argue with me! Now, take a nap, jock boy, while I feed and support your your lazy ass," she said sweetly, then cackled again at his surprised look.

" Feed and support MY lazy ass?", his voice shooting up an octave in disbelief.

" I've always wanted to get to say that."

" You have a mean streak still hiding in you."

" What do you mean hiding ? I take it out for walks all the time!"

Two hours later, the two youths were sitting at the fire pit, slowly cooking the repast of fish Taylor had managed to catch. The ever present desert of fruit lay waiting to the side. As they took turns rotating the fish on the skewer Nathan had improvised, the two of them noticed each other surreptitiously glancing at both the sky and the nearby jungle, hoping for signs of life .

" I wish they'd hurry up. I'm starting to get worried." Taylor complained for the third time in the last hour.

" Don't worry," Nathan reassured her yet again, " they'll be here when they get here. All you're doing is getting upset without any reason. Just try not to ruin your food while you're staring at the beach waiting for them," he said, reaching over to adjust the fish Taylor was letting droop perilously close to the fire. Suddenly, he heard a faint cry in the distance.

Taylor swiftly rose from the ground, offering a hand to Nathan even as she screeched: " Hello! Who's out there? Jackson! Daley! Anybody!"

"We're baaaccckkk!" came the unmistakable call of Eric MacGorrill, jogging up the beach with Cody Jackson easily pacing him.

"Yes!" squealed Taylor as she excitedly clutched Nathan arm, causing him to squawk in protest.

" Oww! Calm down or get those claws off me, one or the other!"

" They're finally here Nathan!"

" I can see that! Calm down before you wet yourself!"

Taylor swatted in mock anger at Nathan's shoulder, then turned here attention to where the two other teens were now panting up the last dozen yards to them. Both of them dropped their packs as they walked up to them.

" Glad to see us ?"Eric asked, a grin on his foxlike face as he fanned himself hit his battered hat.

"What do you think?" Taylor asked , launching herself into Eric's arms and , to his immense surprise, giving him a swift kiss on the lips as she squeezed him tightly , releasing him before he could even hug her back.

"Oh, it's so good to see you again Jackson," she cooed , repeating her performance with him, bet with even greater feeling as Jackson grunted from her surprisingly strong embrace. 

" Careful, you might actually hurt me! Man, has Nate had you training for the Olympics or what ?" he teased, reaching out to shake her tanned shoulders as if he was testing her muscle tone. He grinned broadly at Taylors attractive face, then paused as she made a horrible grimace.

She whirled to point an accusing finger right at Nathan's face as he was pummeling his welcome into Eric's back: " He's sat on his butt the whole time you were gone! I've had to do everything but wipe his bottom for his! I'm surprised he doesn't have bedsores, except that we, uh don't have beds."

Nathan sputtered in vehement denial, " Why you two faced little brat! Every time I tried to do anything for myself , you said " No, I'll do it, that's what I'm here for…". He quit midsentence when he realized all three of them were fighting to keep from laughing. Ruefully shaking his head at how easily Taylor had gotten his, he snarled, " You manipulative skank, I'll get you one day." Then he joined in the laughter as well.

" Never happen. You may outrun me, be stronger, friendlier and be so humble it's nauseating, but you'll never out manipulate me, dear, simple Nathan." was the cloyingly sweet response. Followed her braying laugh.

Fifteen minutes later, they were all up at the main site. The small meal had been supplemented by the MRE's brought by Jackson and Eric. After they'd engulfed the food, Jackson was giving them updates on what they had found at the Hotel Tango and how everyone else was doing. He'd also given Nathan a note from Daley she'd slipped into his backpack before he and Eric had left, bringing a definitely goofy smile to Nathan and causing Eric and Taylor to tease him mercilessly for five solid minutes about the sorrows of separated lovers.

After Jackson had given them the news, he'd given them the travel plans for the next day, causing moans and threats of mutiny that he'd stoically ignored. As the sky grew dark, he reflected that they had had a happy reunion. But he was already anxious for them to get underway, for their true reunion to come when the seven would finally be reunited.


	6. Chapter 6

_Chapter Six_

_Travels and Tribulations_

_Day 39: Noon_

_If it weren't being ruined by the unmistakable sound of someone throwing up, the bright, sunlit stretch of beach, waves gently lapping at the pristine white sand would've been breathtakingly beautiful._

" _I don't think he can puke much longer." Eric said in a undertone to Jackson as they stood a few yards off, watching Taylor support Nathan as he continued to retch noisily near the edge of the water. Eric shuddered slightly as the noises made him feel somewhat queasy himself._

_The same was true of Jackson, who winced slightly as Nathan, who'd started to rise suddenly leaned over and began to hurl yet again. __Man, I had hoped he'd do better than this. We've been going at a crawl since around ten this morning, when he first got sick. At this rate, it's going to take at least twice as long as I planned to get back to the Tango. And that's if Nathan doesn't get even worse._

"That's what you said thirty minutes ago. We'd better go and help Taylor with him," he said to Eric, beginning to stride towards the beach. " At this rate, me'n you may wind up having to carry him, if we plan on getting much further."

" Fine, whatever," Eric replied, frustration and weariness in his tone. _Great. I'm already carrying my pack and Taylor's and it's kickin' my ass. _He forced the irritation back down and felt a small pang of guilt. _I need to cut it out, Nathan didn't ask to get bashed by Cap'n Chaos. Plus, this damn heat's got me kinda queasy myself. Poor Nate's gotta feel a lot worse._

"Sorry to be short Chief," he said, noticing the sharp look Jackson had given him , " I'm just trying to figure out how we're gonna manage this."

_That makes two of us, _Jackson thought to himself. " We'll probably have to make a travois of some sort and alternate between letting Nathan walk when he can and carrying him when he can't."

" What's a travois," Taylor asked, walking towards them as Nathan slumped down in the wet sand behind her and cradled his bushy head in his arms, visibly shaking_, "_ and how'll it help ?"

Nathan spoke up, head still down: " It's a kind of stretcher. You can carry or tow it, either way. But," he protested, " it's not necessary. I'll be ok if I can just rest for a few minutes…"

"Bullshit." was Jackson's succinct comment.

" What he said," came Eric's two cents worth.

" Gotta agree with them, Nathan," was Taylor's view as she put her hands on her hips and glared at him, challenging him to argue. Which he did, of course.

" Guys, I'm not helpless…"

" No, " Jackson said, waving his arms , " you're puking every five steps, running a fever, you've tripped over the air itself apparently six different times and are barely able to walk in a straight line for a minute at a stretch. Nah," sarcasm dripping from every word, "you're just fine. Dumbass." He gave the sick teen a smile as he shook his head at his, to take the sting from his words.

" He's right Nathan," Taylor said, crossing her arms as the wind made the edges of her tied up shirt snap, " you know you're just not well yet."

" Yeah man, " Eric interjected, " you're actually acting like me. You know, arguing with everyone, all of the facts saying you're full of it. Sound familiar?" he said with a look of sympathy.

Nathan slammed a fist angrily, but without much force, into the wet sand. His face was pinched as he growled back: " Ok, ok! You guys win. Just don't expect me to not at least try to walk some, all right?"

" Oh, you'll get to walk," Jackson replied, squinting his eyes in the sunlight as he began looking around for suitable branches to make the travois poles from, " we've got a long way to go and a lot of weight to carry, other than you." Looking back at the three others, he added, " May as well rest for a few minutes while I go find a few tree limbs or something to make this thing with."

Within a hour, the foursome was setting off again. Sensibly, since they already had to carry Nathan, they had simply loaded most of their supplies on the crude stretcher with him and had begun walking across the rocky stretch of coastline, heading in the general direction of the Hotel Tango.

It was not to say that it was any easier than before, however. Nathan weighed a solid 155 pounds himself, nearly as much as Jackson and had the better part of eighty pounds of gear and clothes, none of it replacable , riding with him. Although Eric and Jackson were both in far better shape than Nathan, it was a severe strain on them to go for much more than fifteen minutes at a stretch carrying that heavy of a load. And Taylor was doing her best to help, but all that really amounted to was her carrying the water supply in addition to her own pack. At least on their all too frequent rest stops, she had taken charge of helping Nathan around and was frequently rubbing the other two males shoulders and backs for them, to the appreciation of them both.

After six grueling hours and having went a paltry two and a half miles, at best, Jackson had declared it time to call it a day. After stopping the group near the beach, he'd scouted ahead for a half hour, then found a fit resting place. Within another hour, they had went to the tiny clearing and Taylor was preparing supper, with considerable help from Nathan while Eric and Jackson had gotten the tent and supplies set for the night.

After their humble meal was eaten, the three younger teens had a pleasurable surprise. Jackson had managed to find the energy to produce the guitar than had once belonged to the unlamented Bob Russell and played music for them for a solid hour, while the sky went dark. He was currently ignoring bizarre requests from Eric, who's loudly declared Jackson to have an eighty year olds musical tastes.

" C'mon Chief, play some something good! That crap you've been playin' is making me sleepy, it's so boring! Play something I can sing along to!"

Taylor said in a loud aside to Nathan, " Want to bet that if he sings, we'll be attacked by wild chickens ?"

"Hah!" Nathan snorted derisively, " More likely that pig me and Daley let get away will come up and want him to sing love songs for it!"

" I wonder," Jackson added, " does bad singing makes dolphins suicide ? I'd hate to know I had a part of that. Maybe I should put the guitar up before Eric's howling, err, singing, causes an eco disaster." He refused to dignify the bird Eric threw him from across the campfire.

" I'm supposed to be the comedian here," groused the lanky teen, propped up casually against his backpack, now a makeshift pillow. " Buncha unwanted music critics. I could have been on American Idol, I'll have you know."

Taylor: " Or the Muppet Show."

Jackson: " A remake of the " Gong Show", you know with the Unknown Comic." 

Nathan : " Or one of those disaster shows on Reality TV."

" You're all just jealous of my musical talent and my comedic genius," the self proclaimed prodigy said smugly, pulling his hat over his eyes and stretching out as they hooted laughter at him.

Four hours later, Nathan McHugh was sleeping soundly inside the relative comfort of the tent. A bit too soundly, in the opinion of the other three inhabitants, who were being assailed by the incredibly loud snoring erupting from him. Not ordinary snoring, but the deep, almost foghorn like snorts of someone who had not had decent sleep for days. As the slumbering youth continued to keep up his sonorous symphony, Jackson, Taylor and Eric were conspiring to silence the horrible racket.

" He sounds like a freight train," declared Eric, rolling over to cup his hands over his ears in desperation, to no avail as Nathan let out a especially loud blast of noise.

Taylor launched a shoe at his back. The size seven scored neatly on his shoulders. For five blissful seconds, the horrendous honking stopped, then resumed. If anything, it was even louder than before. 

" Ahhh! I can' stand that racket! It's bad enough Eric is passing gas every five minutes. Now I can't breathe or sleep!" she shrilled stridently. " Jackson, do something!"

" I do not have gas!" Eric interrupted, then cackled as he unceremoniously let out a blast that momentarily covered the snoring noise. His evil scheme backfired however as the sudden stench was so bad he had to fan his own fumes away. " Oh man, that burned my ass and my nose!" The lanky teen picked up his hat to try to disperse the pungent smell even as he snickered at the gagging Taylor.

_I've died and gone to preschool, _Jackson thought as he pulled his sleeping bag over his head, as much to avoid the bickering as to try to hide from the sick smell. _Man, and to think what I've done in the area that Godawful stench is coming from! Note to self: figure out a tactful way to tell Eric to clean himself. _Aloud, he said:

" Eric, I wish you and Nathan would both put corks in it. Dude, it's like being attacked from every angle." Suddenly, he just couldn't take the smell or the snoring anymore. He had to get out of the tent. Now. In a rush, he rose from the sleeping bag, grabbing his shoe in passing as he made his escape.

Stumbling in the darkness to the remains of the fire, he uncovered the small supply of sticks Eric had gathered earlier and began to build a fire. As he worked, he became aware of movement behind him. Glancing over his shoulder, he made out the slim form of Taylor Hagen, her sleeping bag draped over her shoulders in the cool night air. He turned his attention back to starting the fire with his sole surviving lighter, the last of the three he'd brought on the trip .

" I always meant to ask you," came the alto voice, " why _did_ you bring those lighters along on the trip. I mean," she hesitated, obviously trying to frame her words carefully, " you know you'd have gotten in a lot of trouble if one of the adults had caught you with them." She squatted on the ground beside him. Reaching over to gently blow at the fire he'd kindled.

" Simple reason," he answered evenly as he sat down next to her, goosebumps now visible on his bare chest and arms in the night air, " I thought I might need to start a fire, and unlike Nathan or Lex, I wasn't sure if I could without one." He smiled as she shook her head and grinned.

" Ok, that sounds reasonable, I guess." She leaned over to drape part of her sleeping bag around Jackson, who gratefully accepted it. He scooted over closer to her.

_I can't deny it, this feels weird. We were starting to get close to one another before Abby came back and shook things up. And Mel was so fucking jealous, she was making all three of us miserable, even though she tried to be reasonable about it. But now, after all me, Mel and Eric have gone through, how do I tell her I don't feel the same attraction I used to. Hell, I still can't choose between Eric and Mel! And part of me doesn't want to have to choose! I really don't need a third person added, I just don't want to hurt Taylor. She's matured so much; I don't want to undo of that by hurting her._

As if sensing the flow of Jackson's thoughts, Taylor began talking softly:

" I hope I'm not making you uncomfortable Jackson. I mean, getting up next to you and all." She looked at his face, the shadows cast by the fire dancing on his strong features. "I know you've been through so much with Mel and Eric in the past few days and ," she locked eyes with him, " I know you have really strong feelings for the two of them. Including sex."

" I won't deny it ." He looked at her with neither fear nor anger. Taylor nodded her head in acknowledgment before resuming.

" You wouldn't be the person you are if you did. But I just need to know one thing, that's all."

"What's that ?"

" Are we still going to be friends ? I mean, good friends, like we were before everything got so messed up ?" More came tumbling out in a rush, her voice gone slightly shrill as she spoke in a rush.

" I mean, Eric's afraid to talk to me one on one; I think he think's I look down on him because of what the pilot had you guys do and that's so not true! It wasn't your fault plus how you two feel about each other is between you two. Me and Melissa still barely speak to each other, even though we both apologized. Daley and I have a truce, but it wouldn't take much to break it. I swear, Lex is the only one I can talk to right now without watching every word I say! I'm just so confused…" She broke off midsentence as Jackson's response to her tirade was **definitely** not what she expected.

The big jerk was actually fighting to keep from laughing at her! His sides were literally shaking from the visible effort. Taylor opened her mouth to complain when Jackson held a large hand up to forestall her, chucking as he explained:

"I swear, I'm not laughing at you Taylor," he said, a chuckle undermining his efforts to sound sincere, " it's just that " being confused" seems to be part of everyday life for all of us these days!" He hugged her shoulders tightly. " Our whole world just keeps spinning around; every time we think it's stopped, something pulls the cord and BAM!, hang on guys, we're off again. Sound familiar ?" he asked gently, releasing her shoulders to hold her smaller hands in his own. He smiled at her as he awaited a reply.

Green eyes met aquamarine ones as she locked eyes with him and let out a heartfelt, " Oh yeah. That's become a **really** familiar feeling in the last month." Her normally beautiful face contorted as she looked into the crackling red flames waving in the pit. She leaned over and placed her head on Jackson's shoulder again .

"Taylor, I'll make a promise to you , if you'll make one to me."

" What do you want me to promise to ?" she asked, a slight edge of trepidation in her voice. In Taylor Hagens' experience, when people wanted you to promise to something, it usually meant they were trying to manipulate you. She castigated herself for the thought almost as soon as it had formed: _Dummy! It's Jackson; he __**wouldn't **__try to manipulate you or anyone else! He's just not like that, thank God._ She relaxed slightly at the thought, a pulse of love for the big guy welling in her heart as he spoke again.

" I promise, I'll always be there when you need someone to talk to, or if you're lonely or scared, or whatever," he paused, giving one of his oddly endearing shakes of his head, leaning forward for emphasis, " but you have to promise to just try to keep being the person you are with me, to everyone."

Taylor shook her head in puzzlement. "What do you mean ? I really don't understand. I thought I was acting the same with everyone. Nathan was telling me the other day that I was acting a lot more mature…"

Jackson explained: " That's part of it. You seem to be willing to show more of the good side to us guys, for whatever reason. It just seems like it's harder for you to act that way around Mel and Daley."

Understanding slowly dawned in Taylor. She considered what he'd said for a few moments, then replied in a subdued tone:

" You have something there. I really never thought about it, but growing up, I was always competing against other girls. Mom always had me in beauty reviews and Daddy always use my photos for ads, saying I was better looking than the models the agencies wanted to use for his real estate ads."

She shrugged: " And I've never had any really close female friends or relatives, I always went with whoever was close to me in popularity."

She looked down for a moment before turning her troubled eyes back to Jackson, asking a difficult question of him: " Do you think I'm a bad person for that ?"

Jackson was quick to deny that charge. " Of course not! Taylor, that's just the surroundings you came up in. You changed so much when you got here, I admit though," his cheeks twitched as he fought a urge to grin, " you were definitely still a " Daddy's little princess" when we first got here. There were times I was ready to give up on you, after how you tormented Mel and me , especially with the tape incident."

" Ahhh!" she snorted, looking skyward and tossing her hair, " Me and Eric will never hear the end of that! I'll never do something like that again. And it was all over a shirt Daddy gave me that I didn't really like that much to begin with!"

" Uh, Taylor," he pointed at her, merriment in his baritone voice, " you're wearing it right now."

" Whatever, "she said repressively , idly playing with the frayed edges of the blouse in question, " The point is I was stupid and I paid for it."

Jackson leaned over towards her so swiftly she flinched , " Exactly! You've paid for your mistakes and now you try not to repeat them. That's all I , or anyone else , could ask . Just show this type of maturity, to everyone, and you'll do great." He touched her hand and said firmly, " I believe in you Taylor. You're a genuinely good person and like I've said before, in a lot of ways, you're the most honest person I know."

" You mean I'm not afraid to complain." she teased.

" Oh," the grin on his face this time wasn't being fought down at all, " definitely not. " But," serious now, " what I mean is you say what you think. Actually, you and Eric both do; it's something I love about you both. I'm too much like Mel in that way. I'm afraid I'll make someone mad or hurt their feelings if I say what I really think. Of course, that goes back to what I said about where you come from. In my 'hood, showing how you really felt meant showing a potential weakness."

Taylor had a sudden insight, " Jackson, that's why I act like I do ."

" I know. Now we both get it. So," he took a breath, " do we have a deal?"

She sealed the deal with a kiss to his cheek, " Yes, I guess we do."

" Good," came the irascible voice of Eric from the tent, " now that the midnight psychiatrics are over with , will you two please shut up so I can sleep? I feel horrible."

" You smell worse!" Taylor cried back mockingly.

Jackson shook his head tolerantly at the friendly insults, which flew like bats out of Hell for the next five minutes . He stood, offering a hand to Taylor, who gratefully accepted.

" Well , ready to face Foghorn Leghorn and Pepe La Phew in there ?"

" God," Taylor wailed to the heavens, " what I'd give for earplugs and a gasmask!", before walking with Jackson to the tent.

Ten minutes later, the flames had been doused and four teenagers from Los Angeles were slumbering on a forgotten isle deep in Pacific waters.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

All Together Now

Day 40: Mid-morning

After arising (all to early, according to Eric, at least), the foursome had had a quick breakfast, then gathered their gear and resumed their trek to the Hotel Tango. The pale blue sky was virtually cloud free, with a mild breeze coming in off the sapphire waters, the ever present scent of salt discernible in it. The white beach gleamed in the bright morning light, seeming to invite weary travelers to its comfortable embrace. All in all, it might have been pulled out of a travel brochure.

_Of course, _Jackson thought sourly, _an honest brochure would have to mention all of the other wonderful attractions here, like, oh, the leeches, the giant lizards, the million and one types of bugs, the constant rain, humidity, heat and my personal favorite, the parasites like giurdia. _The tall young man absently rubbed at his flat stomach, his face in a faint grimace as he remembered his bout with that particular problem and the not inconsiderable issues it had caused him. He shook himself slightly, the turned his attention back to the his immediate surroundings.

"You sure you're up to helping Eric ?", he asked once again as he knelt down to grasp the handles of the improvised travois, glancing up at Nathan McHugh's mahogany face.

" Dude," he replied testily, " I'm tired of being a burden. I'll be all right. There _are _to of us on this end," he added pointedly, " that's only about 20 pounds each for me and Eric . Are you sure _you_ can handled the other 40 ?" he asked with a grin.

" Hey," interjected Eric, setting his hat on his head as Taylor and he approached the travois, "if you're feeling better, feel free to take my half of the half of the load!" He let out a squawk of protest as Taylors' left hand smacked him smartly upon his narrow shoulders.

" You are so _lazy! _I swear, I'm surprised you don't just crawl around like a slug or something!" she hissed, swatting away at Eric.

_God, it's like dealing with preschoolers , _Jackson thought, a mixture of affection, amusement and irritation warring behind his pale blue eyes. Aloud, he interjected:

"Try not to hurt him Taylor", a unwilling grin trembling on his lips as Taylor finally quit pummeling the hapless Eric, who as trying to hide behind a laughing Nathan, " he's lazy, but he is useful from time to time."

"For what," the blonde snorted , " other than maybe a scarecrow."

" I resent that, " the maligned Eric retorted hotly, " I pull my weight!"

"When he's not pulling other things," Nathan broke in with a grin.

" What is this," Eric exclaimed, spreading his long arms, a look of disbelief on his narrow face, " pick on Eric day or something ?" He turned to look at Jackson, an unspoken appeal in his hazel eyes.

" All right, all right," Jackson said quietly, shaking his head , " I think we all agree Eric's a lazy asshole at time," he ignored the protests Eric made at that, " but he is , on _some_ occasions, useful. Let's quit picking on the poor little fellow," manfully suppressing a grin as Erics' protests became ever louder, "and get moving." He added, more serious now, " We still have a good hike ahead. With that said, he leaned over and grabbed his end of the travois and looked expectantly at the others.

" Ok, I'll call a truce if Taylor will too," Nathan said with a laugh even as he went to grab one of the crude handles.

" Oh, if I _have _to , " Taylor replied, leaning over to place a hand on Eric's shoulder in passing as she went to gather the water supplies. The gesture seemed to visibly relax Eric as he turned his attention to the travois as well.

Moments later , the foursome were once more on their trek to rejoin the others at the Hotel Tango.

Day 40: Mid afternoon

_Oh, what I wouldn't give for just five minutes under a air conditioner, or even just a fan ! _thought Daley Marin to herself as mopped at her fair complexioned face with her green bandana. The redheaded young woman absently fanned herself with her battered straw hat as she got up from the log she'd been sitting on to look around and see what her two companions were up to. Her step brother, Lex, was , as usual, at his make shift " work bench" he had made out of an old door stretched across two ancient metal folding chairs, about 30 yard away. He had found several venerable old field radios and had been trying for the last two days to see if he could cobble up a working pair from the half dozen remnants he'd uncovered in the bowels of the wrecked base. Judging from the mumbling and the frequent shaking of his raven black haired head, he wasn't having a great deal of luck. Daley put her hands on her slim hips, her white shirt fluttering in the warm breeze as she made a half circle, looking around for Melissa Wu. _Hmm, _she wondered to herself, _I don't see Mel anywhere. That's not like her. Since her ordeal, she hasn't really liked being alone for much longer than a bathroom break._ Concern for her friend and curiosity at her unusual absence combined to make her voice her concern to Lex a few moments later.

" I don't know Day," the ten year old answered distractedly, steadily pulling at wires in a casing when Daley queried him, " I haven't seen her in a couple of hours. I've been busy with this." he said expansively, pausing to wipe seat off his olive skinned brow, damp, black hair draping nearly into his brown eyes. " Maybe she's off looking for more wild chickens; she said this morning she'd seen tracks back near the west side of the Tango."

_He really needs a haircut, _Daley thought absently as she nodded in agreement. " Yeah, I'd almost forgotten about that. It took me forever to really wake up this morning. I haven't slept much in the last couple of nights because of this humidity. It's so hot here compared to the old shelter by the beach", she said, " Oh well, I had better go check on Mel. Try not to get too frustrated with that antique junk Lex," she said with a grin spreading across her face as he grunted in acknowledgement.

Yesterday had seen a very rare event indeed : Lex showing his temper. Frustrated by a lack of progress with his radio repairs, Lex had slung one of the old field radios a good 15 yards, combined with a few choice words for the old junk that Daley hadn't been aware that he knew. After the shock had wore off, it had taken a good two hours before he'd calmed down enough to talk to Mel and her about it. It had also brought an old and all too frequent problem for all of them back to the forefront, their all to reasonable fear of never being rescued.

It was all well and good to try to gather everyone together and to try to take action to get off this island. She'd agreed to Jackson's plans the same as everyone else. But the strain of trying to act normal all the time, with all they had been through was just too much at times and everyone had a breaking point, even stolid Lex.

It was the first time Lex had spoken about it and it had shaken her and Mel badly. Lex had finally admitted that he had figured out just what the unlamented Captain Russell had had planned for him: to make him his personal sex slave. The boy had also admitted he had figured out what the situation was with Jackson, Eric, and Mel, to the latter's discomfort. For a brief while, Lex had become a frightened , lonely child. He had also explained to them that a large part of he was constantly working as his ay of coping.

As Daley walked through the rough brush near the western side of the complex she struggled internally to keep her balance. _I have to keep it together, not just for the group, or even myself, but especially for Lex. Even though we had our ups and downs since e crashed here, he is my brother, not just a step brother and I love him. I have to keep an eye on him. _Her thoughts broke off as a familiar voice called out.

" Daley, I was just about to start shouting for you! Come see what I found!" The taller Oriental teen reached out and clasped her hand on Daley's wrist a pulled her after her. " You won't believe it!" she squealed in excitement as she pulled the other teen after her, heading downhill in the shallow valley behind the decayed base.

A minute later, the two girls stood panting near a particulary dense clump of ferns. Melissa pointed at the cluster, wiping sweat from her face onto her purple tshirt as she spoke " I went searching for just one set of tracks this morning, but look at what they led to."

Daley straightened up, removing her hands from her knees and asked somewhat testily " What am I supposed to be looking at Mel ?"

Melissa turned and crept towards the shrubs, reaching a hand back to beckon Daley behind her. Suppressing a sigh, the red head followed ducking nher head as Mel bent branches back and whispered " Look," pointing into the tiny center of the bushes.

Gathered into a tiny space, no more than a six-by-six clearing, were two clearly adult sized chickens, both black and gray, and at least a half dozen younger ones, ranging from two almost grown ones to two that couldn't have been out of their shell for more than a few days. And in the place of honor in the center was a petite nest with three small eggs in it. The two watchers shared a grin as they slowly withdrew from the flock.

Once they had backed up from the area, Daley spoke up, " Oh man, you hit the jackpot Mel! The decision won't be the chicken or the egg this time; now we could have either." She pulled off her hat and whirled it into the humid air jubilantly as she looked at the other girl's attractive face.

A face that had a all to rare recently smile on it as Melissa Wu replied " I know! There doesn't have to be all the drama this time because if we do this right, we'll have a whole new food supply, especially," she emphasized, " if one or to of the chicks are female."

" I know, " Daley agreed happily, relieved for this sliver of good news " if we can just keep Eric from woofing them down feathers and all!"

Mel chuckled appreciatively as she glances back in the direction of the Hotel Tango. " Well, think this news might cheer Lex up some?"

" Let's go and see!" Daley said amiably, gesturing in the buildings direction, " After you, o mighty hunter."

The two young women were both even hotter and more tired than before when the rounder the corner of the Tango and started towards Lex's work area. They were just ready to start calling for Lex when a voice called for them. And not just any voice, but the voice of

" Hey, isn't anyone here to welcome me here ?" came the resonant baritone of

" NATHAN!" Daley cried out in a rush of joy as she rounded the last of the building and saw the familiar forms gathered around Lex's work station. The rangy redhead rushed up to where the bandaged for of Nathan McHugh was propping against Lex's table and grabbed her boyfriend up in a tremendous hug , to the laughter of the other four gathered around.

" Well," Nathan laughed after Daley unabashedly kissed him, " I guess at least one of you missed me!" He gathered her into another huge bear hug as Mel walked up to Jackson in a measured pace.

Time seemed to stop for her for just a second as Jackson suddenly reached out to put one arm around her shoulder and one around her narrow hips as he leaned her back and kissed her deeply, passionately and fully. After a few seconds, her slowly released her, then reached out his left hand to caress her cheek softly.

" I missed you." he said huskily.

" I missed you too, " she replied simply. She reached over to pat Taylor on the shoulder and then stepped past her to face Eric. They locked eyes for a moment. Then she reached out to Put a hand on Eric's shoulder and one on his cheek before she pulled him to her to give him a firm kiss on the other cheek. " I even missed you," she told him with a faint smile.

The seven young people continued to talk for the next two hours, until, finally, the sun set over the small island in the Pacific. Their problems had not been magically solved. If they were to be solved, it would be through their own doing. But for now, they would have to wait until morning. But on this night, the seven ere once again all together now.

AUTHORS NOTE:

Guys n girls I am very sorry for taking months to update this story. I have had to have surgery for my gall bladder of all things and I also managed to break a knuckle in my left hand ( I'm a lefty!) which helped keep me out. To my reviewers, thank you. To my readers, thanks for your time.

Flight 29 Down news- as of July- DK has the show on at 5:30p.m central and 1: 30 a.m. PLEASE email Dk and ask for it to be changed to a better slot!


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Getting to Work

Day 42- Morning

The six teenagers sat in a semicircle, listening attentively to the youngest member of their group, the warm breeze blowing in from the nearby ocean seeming to caress and lull them as Lex began to speak from his perch on a old can in the center.

" Ok, I've had a few days to work out the basic design for a bigger version of the boat that Captain Russell had here. Fortunately, there were a couple of others out in the brush," he gestured towards the nearby jungle with a bronze arm, " between them and the remains of the one here, I came up with a decent design, with a lot of help from Melissa," he gave a nod towards the older girl, who grinned back at him, " for the actual drawings. I'm not much of an artist myself," he said ruefully, regret for his lack in that area plain.

" Nice to know there's _something_ our resident genius can't do," Eric mumbled _sotto voice_. At the daggered looks Daley and Mel gave him, he hastily added, nervously clearing his voice, " Uh, good job Lex and Mel! Here here!" in a patently false voice. The skinny teen seemed to wilt onto his seat at a warning rumble from Jackson, sitting beside him.

" Go on Lex, " the sandy haired Cody said encouragingly.

The ten year old took off his black and green Hartwell cap and fanned himself with it as he resumed: "I've made a list up of supplies we'll need to build the boat. I've already gathered some of what we need from the Hotel Tango and some of the outbuildings but," he emphasized strongly, " there's a lot of things we'll have to figure out how to make. Fortunately, "he smiled at the group, his white teeth flashing in the bright light, " we have a good talent pool here. Here's how I've broken the tasks down by person:

" Jackson, " he said, rising up and handing several page of designs and supplies to the leader of their group, " you've got the most skill at carving and you've helped build the big raft of Eric's and the little signal raft," he ignored the incipient groan of Eric at the reminder of _his_ severely flawed raft design and its nearly fatal results for Nathan and Daley, its test pilots, " so I assigned most of the actual building to you, with the rest of us providing muscle or hands as needed." Jackson nodded somberly at this news.

" Next, we'll need to gather as many vines and any ropes that may be hidden here together with what was brought from Camp 29 Down . As there will be a lot of weaving involved, I'm assigning this to Taylor."

Needless to say, several heads turned at this.

The worthy in question was quick to respond, although that response was not exactly what was expected from the frequently flighty Taylor Hagen.

" Uh," she said, fumbling slightly with the edge of her pink shirt as the honey blonde haired young woman spoke, " not that I really mind or anything, but why me Lex ? Mel can braid vines better, or at least faster than me." She turned her hands skywards in a " why me" gesture.

Lex spoke reassuringly to her, "You'll be fine on the vine detail. Speed isn't vital there. I need Melissa for a different job, one where her cooking skills will be a definite plus."

" What job is that Lex ?" Mel asked, curiosity plain in her contralto voice. She ran her fingers through her ebony ponytail ass she locked her brown eyes with Lex's across the six foot gap between them. The breeze seemed to pick up as she spoke, the blades of grass and low shrubs bowing before it.

" I'm putting you in charge of gathering fruit to dry and preserve for the actual trip. We may need to experiment with it a time of two before we go and this way we'll have time to get it right," he answered.

" What about the MRE's we found stashed here ? We are taking them too aren't we ?" asked Eric, stretching his long, slightly hairy legs as he fanned with his hat as he looked at Lex.

" Sure," Lex said, " but they won't last forever and we may need some extra food. We may try to dry some fish too, if Taylor and Jackson can spare some time from their work, since they're the two best fishers." He turned to look at Nathan now, who had laid his bandaged head on Daley's shoulder.

As usual, Nathan _had _to make the first move.

" All right Lex. What've you got that a concussed guy can do?" he asked softly, reluctantly sitting up straight, the sunlight giving a faint reddish halo to his spring red-brown hair.

" You're job is to haul water from the little spring behind the building . We'll all get thirsty quick, especially since we seem to be coming into the really hot weather now, " he answered .

" You mean I _don't_ have to lug water?!" said an incredulous Eric, hazel eyes wide in surprise. Then a look of horror crossed his foxlike face, " Oh My God, you've found something worse!" At that, he fell out of his chair, apparently unconscious. Expect for a noticeable twitching of his arms and legs.

Jackson rolled his eyes before barking at Eric : " Eric. Quit making an idiot of yourself and get up. Now. Please." he added the last almost as an after though. _Lord knows what reaction I'll get if I smack him down in public, _he thought, _except that it'd be suitably dramatic and make this meeting take three time as long!_ He rubbed his neck, grimacing slightly as he felt the seat there.

" All right Chief," Eric grunted as he got up from his sprawl, flopping into the old chair, limbs akimbo . "Ok Alexander," he said repressively, " just what torture have got in store for me ?" he asked, leaning forward as if to impale Lex with his glare.

Completely unmoved by Eric's theatrics, Lex plodded on: " Eric. Despite your, uh, _acerbic_ personality," here he had to pause as Taylor tittered, Daley snorted in derision and even Mel had to briefly put her hands over her face as Eric squawked a protest, "you're actually a pretty imaginative person." Eric assumed a look a smug superiority at that, causing Taylor to cackle again, subsiding when Jackson coughed. " Someone who's that imaginative can't be wrong all the time,"

" Wanna bet?" Nathan whispered in Daley ear, quieting down when Jackson snapped his fingers.

"You actually had some good ideas when we made your raft, so I'm making you our salvage person," Lex said.

" Salvage ? So what, exactly, will I do?" Eric asked, earnestly enough.

" Simple," Lex replied, " We need someone to explore the basements and hard to get to spots here. Even the most unlikely spots may have something in them. And I couldn't explore everywhere I wanted to," he cut brown eyes sideways as his stepsister, who didn't hesitate to break in.

" Yeah, I had a problem with my ten year old brother crawling around in Russell's rat trap! I swear, I thought I'd have to tie a can to him to keep him from sneaking off!" She shook her head in exasperated affection at her sibling.

"I would've be all right Day," he protested, " I'm positive there's a subbasement to where he had Jackson and the others trapped, I'm just not strong enough to get the bent metal out of the way. That's why I need Eric to go where I can't.

Jackson visible paled at the mention of Russell's torture chamber. " Lex, please, please don't ever try to go into any of these buildings basements alone," he said sternly to the young boy. " You have no idea of what that man may have stashed here." He suppressed both fear and memories with a shudder.

" Yeah, not too crazy about prowling around down there myself," Eric added in an unusually melancholy tone, almost as if to himself, " but, if it'll get us off this effing rock, I'm all for it. Sign me up."

" I'll get with you later and go into specific areas we need to explore," Lex said.

" Lookin' forward to it, " Eric mumbled, looking down at his battered shoes, his downcast eyes troubled by painful memories.

" Day, " he turned to his sister, who sat up slightly as the groups interest turned to her, " you're our best a putting together the facts, the requirements to get tasks done. I need you to help by figuring out how much of what we need and what we'll actually be able to take. But that's for later. The main thing I need you to help with is converting our parachute into a sail, or even two. You're pretty good at sewing."

Daley's eyes misted over slightly as she spoke, clouded by her own painful memories, "Yeah, Mom and Grandma taught me how. Mom loved to sew things and grandma loved to crochet." She shook herself and raised her voice, a smile crossing her face, "Never thought I'd get to try it on a parachute on a deserted island in the Pacific."

"Don't leave out the " surrounded by perverts and monsters without any hope of survival part," Eric added sardonically.

" Oh, ho could I have left those little details out ?" she said with a laugh.

Jackson stood up, brushing his hands off on the knee of his grey camo pants. He put his hand over his forehead to briefly gaze at the bright late morning sun. " Man, it's getting hotter by the second. Lex, thanks for the briefing. No we all know what parts we have to play. I think that right now, we need to eat breakfast, then we'll get back together to gather the supplies for me to start on the boats frame. Then , this afternoon, we'll separate for a couple of hours on our separate jobs, then we'll get back together for dinner."

" We don't need any heroes either," he added warningly, hands on his hips, his cross bobbing on the chain on his neck as he spoke, " if you can't remember the last time you drank something, then it's time for a drink."

He wiped seat from his brow as he continued, " It's gonna be easy to dehydrate in this heat and heatstroke isn't pretty. Remember how beat up Abby was?", he added referring to the deceased Abby Fujimoto, barely survived her second trip into the wild and had had a heatstroke that had changed her entire personality for a time, " None of us need that."

" For now, let's eat and then we'll get to work."


	9. Chapter 9

_Chapter 9_

_Interludes and Surprises_

_Day 45: Mid-day_

_After two days of non stop work on their projects, Jackson had decided that a half day of rest was not just called for, it was deserved. In fact, in light of the seemingly ever rising heat, it was practically a necessity. So, bowing to the inevitable, the seven of them were currently doing their own respective things. In Cody Jackson's case, that was currently involving he and Mel walking along the nearby beach._

_Mel was stopping every so often to pick up shells and look at them. She'd mentioned to Jackson that she was considering making a shell necklace for a present to cheer Lex up and so they' wandered down to the ocean together. Every time she found a interesting shell, she would ask his opinion._

" _What do you think of this one Cody ?" she asked, looking up from where she was kneeling in the wet sand, holding up another shell._

_Jackson took the shell from here and turned it over in his large, long fingered hands, " Cool. It's got some blue in it, more than any of the others you found so far." He leaned over and offered the striking young lady a hand up, which she gratefully accepted. _

" _Thanks, " she said, leaning over to quickly kiss Jackson's cheek, " What do you say we find some shade and sit and talk for a while ?", she asked, dusting her hands off on her khaki shorts while looking into Jackson's pale blue eyes ._

_The tall young man out and arm around the smaller Wu and aimed her in the direction of a nearby stand of palm trees. After a few moments, the to lovers were comfortable ensconced in a shallow, dry hollow in front of the trees. Jackson leaned back and Mel leaned over to cradle her head on his firm chest, raven hair spilling over him._

_Jackson looked down at her, running his left hand through her black tresses._

" _I'm not used to seeing your with your hair down like this. It looks really good on you Mel."_

" _Thank you," she replied, gazing out over the gently lapping waves, " It's gotten so long it's hard to keep it up all the time." _

_Jackson couldn't help it, he burst out laughing at her choice of words. As he whooped, Melissa sat up and slapped his shoulder hard, a broad smile on her face as Cody ducked his head, snickering all the while. He reached up and caught Mel's hands I his own and clasped them together strongly._

" _I love you," he said warmly, releasing her hands and enfolding her in his arms as he breathed into her hair, " you have no idea how much you mean to me."_

_Mel suppressed a sigh of pleasure at Cody's words as she responded: " God, I love you too," she whispered back, pulling his head down so she could kiss him. For a few seconds, all was right in Melissa Wu's universe, but then, as usual, her doubts expressed themselves._

" _Cody, are you any closer to sorting out how you feel about Eric ?" she asked, hastening to add at the suddenly tense expression on his face, " I mean, I know you two had an , encounter, on the trip to get Nathan, I figured you would…" she broke off, at a loss for words._

_Gently pulling Mel up with him, the six foot tall teen got to his feet. He released his hold on her and began to pace around the base of the tree for a minute before he spoke to her again, in a low, hesitant voice._

" _I wish to God I could make up my mind about the two of you. I really do, but," he gave one of those odd shakes of the head he was so prone to, " I feel just as strongly towards Eric as I do you. Not," he hastened to say, folding his arms together and looking out into the ocean, the wind ruffling his blondish brown hair , " the exact same way of course, but close enough to be a blessing and a curse." He went silent for few moments, then propped against one of the trees and sighed, " I just don't know what to say or do to make the situation better. And the last thing I'd ever want to do is somehow hurt either of you, but I'm afraid that's gonna happen eventually, " his voice suddenly cracked under the emotional strain, his face contorting with emotion, " I'm just afraid I'll wind up losing you both and I don't want to lose either of you." As he spoke, a single tear slowly fell from his right eye, streaking down his cheek._

_Melissa walked to him and reached out, cupping his face in her hands, aware at the touch of the tense trembling of his strong body. She looked into his face and began speaking firmly, but with the love behind the words clear._

" _Cody, please believe me; I'm not going to abandon you. Not now, not ever. Even if you decide you'd rather be with Eric than me, we're friends for life. I think Eric feels the same way, than as long as we're friends, that'll be enough." She added wistfully, " Who knows what'll happen tomorrow, but for today, I 'm happy right here, right now, just knowing you love me period." She embraced him, still feeling the tension in his taut body._

"_You have no idea how much it helps hearing you say that. Eric said pretty much the same thing to me on our trip," he said as he put a arm around her shoulder and looked out at the lapping waves again. " And you should know," he said, a note of teasing in his baritone voice, "I'm not the only one in this threesome of ours Eric's attracted to," he said, lips quirking mischievously , " uh, how'd he put it, oh yeah, " fucking porn star hot", I believe is how he described his view on you."_

_For a moment, Mel was torn between horror, amusement and a good bit of surprised appreciation at this. " Wow," she said slowly, shaking her head in wonder, " I mean, I knew the horn dog had been attracted to me since third grade, but, I mean , wow. Even after my tantrum I threw when he nearly got himself drowned when we first found this place ?" she asked, " I mean, I really let him have it."' _

_Jackson smiled as he replied, " I'll admit, some of it was seeing what Russell had you and Abby do, " referring to the forced lesbian encounter between the two beautiful Oriental girls that Mel rarely spoke of, " but actually, Eric said it was realizing how strong you could be and how you kept helping him even when he was being a prick made him really see you for the first time here." He glanced off in the distance for a moment, then continued. " He's not the only one . When we first got here, I thought you were friendlier than the others, but still…"_

" _Just another " rich, spoiled kid" I think was what you said on the video diary, " she broke in with a smirk._

" _You'll be happy to know I changed my mind."_

" _About which part ?" she asked mockingly._

" _After getting to know about the others backgrounds, I decided your family's not really that _rich," he said pretentiously, oofing as Mel drove an unexpected elbow into his midriff with mock anger.

Jackson leaned over and kissed her. Then, arms in arm, the two of them began to walk slowly down the beach.

**************************************************************

" So, just how well hung is Jackson ?" came the question.

Followed by ten seconds of gagging and spitting.

Eric McGorrill's red and black tee shirts' front was half drenched from the water he'd been drinking when Taylor asked the question out of the blue. The redfaced young man shot a look of mixed irritation and disgust at the blonde girl , standing there with a look of joy at his discomfort. He mentally executed her painfully before speaking:

" What the hell do you mean asking me that ? And what makes you think I'd tell anyways ?" he asked acidly, making a futile effort to ring the front of his shirt dry.

The long legged Taylor Hagen walked over to him, kneeling don to pick up his water bottle from the ground and handing it to him before replying : " Just curious. It's not like we have a _lot _to talk about here," she said, then wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, " or _do _we ?" She giggled at the stricken expression on Eric's narrow boned face.

An expression that gave way to an evil smirk of his own as Eric decided to play along . He held his hands a foot apart , grinning and said, " Oh, there could be a conversation piece or two here." He erupted in laughter as Taylor's eyes went wide.

" I hope you're joking ! And for a while I thought Jackson was hot; he'd better keep that thing away from me! I have a rule, when I finally bless someone with my most valuable possession, I want to walk normally afterwards!" Her face crinkled in delight as she added, " Maybe that's why you and Melissa are both walking funny lately." She narrowly ducked the water bottle Eric threw at her, braying laughter as him as he did so.

Eric was torn between laughter, irritation and amazement as he looked on his laughing friend. Despite the lack of make up, or as Taylor called it " survival gear" , the blonde still managed to look ready for a photo shoot for her dad's realty companys' monthly magazine. She was dressed in a pink blouse with a matching miniskirt and even pink sandals, to boot. About the only thing unattractive about her was her annoying laugh, which he was hearing plenty of.

" At least I'm gettin' some!" he retorted.

" Who says I want any ?" she replied, "I hate getting all hot and sweaty."

_I sure as hell don't, not if Cody's involved, _he did not say aloud. Loyalty to Jackson forced his to say: " Look, can we get off this topic, please?" he pleaded, " I really don't want to discuss my sex life, or anyone else's for that matter."

Taylor stared at him for a moment. The Eric from just 7 weeks ago would've felt privileged just to have a conversation in passing with her at Hartwell High. Heck, the Eric from just three weeks ago would've. But after all the teen in front of her had went through since, he'd been forced to mature. And as she thought about it for a moment, Taylor came to an unexpected conclusion:

She _liked_ Eric now. Not romantically, although a tiny part of her acknowledged that he did have a rather handsome face, at least. Oh, she'd become friendly with him here, and it didn't hurt that he'd had a crush on her for the first few weeks, one so bad he'd gotten into several predicaments because of his desire to please her. Not now.

His admittedly unusual arrangement with Jackson and Mel had helped his self confidence and matured him faster than she'd imagined. _Of course, he went through God knows what we they were Captain Chaos' prisoners too. And Jackson has said plainly that they wouldn't have made it without him, Mel too. And I am being just a little __**too**__ nosy, _she thought to herself before responding.

" Oh , all right, since you don't seem willing to spill it, " she said with false exasperation, reaching out to gently push at his bony shoulder, " I guess I'll quit."

" Thank you, " he said, relief plain in his voice, " ah, dammit, now I'll have to change shirts and I don't have any clean," he complained, stripping the shirt off his body with surprising grace. He flung the damp shirt over his shoulder, exposing his slim, mildly tanned chest.

" Hey, if you don't want to talk, then how about we swim ?" Taylor suggested hopefully. She hated swimming alone and Eric was usually playful in the water.

" Sure, " he said slowly, " I haven't been in the water in a few days now." His face brightened as the idea of a swim with her took hold.

" Yeah, I thought you hadn't been in water for a while, judging from the smell, " Taylor said deadpan.

" I hate you, you smartass, " he snarled, then laughed as she began her donkeylike braying again.

The two took off to the beach at a run, pausing from time to time to throw things at one another, just to show they cared.

*************************************************************

In a secluded little cove on the beach, barley in sight of where Jackson and Melissa were beachcombing for shells, two lithe young bodies ere clenched passionately on beach towels on the sand, barely beneath the shade of the nearby foliage. Nathan MacHughs mahogany toned back glistened as he nuzzled Daley Marin's pale neck hungrily. The tall redhead moaned her appreciation as her hands caressed Nathan, going places she'd never dared go before.

Like to the hard bulge throbbing beneath her hand now.

Nathan moaned as her warm hand slipped in under his boxer's waistband and gripped his cock. Nathan groaned and said" No. We have to stop. I don't an t to go too fast and besides, I don't even have a condom." He reached down and pulled Day's hand from his no open pants, the tip of his penis bobbing in the air as he did so.

The disheveled woman grunted softly in frustrated assent. " I know, I know." She sat up slowly as Nathan sat beside her; both were breathing heavily, she noticed. She glanced at Nate's lap, the proof of his desire still burgeoning there, even through the tough cargo shorts.

When Nathan had suggested they go lay on the beach, neither of them had expected it to turn into a petting session. Not that either exactly _minded_ that it had, of course. Even this illusion of privacy had been damn well earned.

_And it's a shame that for lack of a condom, I can't show Nate just how committed to him I am,_ Daley thought, sexual frustration making her grouchy, among other things, _but maybe there's something I can do, even if I've never done it before…_

Without a word, she reached over and pushed Nathan down flat on his back.

" Daley, I thought we just agreed to stop," he began nervously, weakly struggling with her insistant hands.

" We agreed to not go all the way, to keep from getting me pregnant," she corrected him a her hands went to his bulging fly. Batting his hands away, she deftly opened it and pulled loose her prize, struggling to hold her awe in at the sight.

Nathan wasn't " hung like a horse", to be honest, if what Mel had told her was true, it looked like Eric had him beat in length and Jackson in width, but hey, he probably was number two in both and that looked fine with her. The slightly over seven inch long and two and a half inch around dark brown phallus in front of her was perfectly adequate for what she had in mind.

Nathan gasped loudly as, without hesitation, Daley leaned over and ran a hot tongue over the head and shaft. She looked up as he trembled and asked:

" Feels good," she inquired, noticing the faint saltiness and musky, though not unpleasant aroma as she did it again. Nathan replied by gripping her head and lowering it back; he wasn't going to interrupt his blowjob by speaking ! Daley smiled to herself as she engulfed the head of his dick, sucking mightily.

Moments later, she'd managed to help Nathan peel his constraining clothes off and he lay nude before her as she slurped at his coarsely haired testicles and stroked his spit slickened shaft as his hips bucked slightly. She swapped, cupping his large, pendulous balls as she sucked him all the way to the hairy root, fighting her gag reflex as she went. Nathan's hips bucked ever more, his strong hands guiding her as she sped up more and more. Soon, his ass was lifting up from the towels as Day's head plunged faster and faster, her tongue licking at his slit as she jacked him off with her tight red lips. The breath whistled from him as a sensation he'd only felt before through his own ministrations overtook him.

" I'm coming, I'm coming, " he panted, trying to shove her, to keep his fluids from her mouth, to no avail, " I can't hold it, I can't hold it," he cried out as his hips bucked mightily, his penis pulsating as the cum shot out.

Directly into Daley's willing mouth as she hungrily swallowed the salty fluids, not daring to think about hat she was doing for once. As Nathan's orgasm subsided, she lay her head on his sweaty chest , licking his penis clean as she did so.

***************************************************************

Completely unaware of the quantum leap in his stepsister and Nathan's relationship happening just a few hundred feet away, Lex Marin was investigation a minor mystery. He'd been walking not on the beach, but in the ferns and shrubs skirting it. Along the way, the intrepid young boy had noticed several unusual scratches on the shrubs and the bases of the trees, like something had been trying to climb them but hadn't succeeded in anything other than scoring the bark.

He'd also noticed several unusual tracks, possibly footprints in a couple of the small clearings. For the life of him, he couldn't figure out what they were from. They almost looked like chicken tracks, except for an extra toe and the fact that they were at least five times that size. He'd been tracing them for a while now, wandering through the rough underbrush. He'd managed to get a couple of new tears in his favorite green shirt and gray cargo pants as well. For all of that, he was determined to track these markings down.

As he meandered on , he hear voices nearby. As he peered around, he saw Jackson and Mel about 30 yards ahead, through a break in the jungle. Whatever they were talking about, it wasn't his business, so he continued on. _Besides, _he thought to himself, _they were probably talking about their convoluted sex life. That's the main topic around here lately. I really hope Daley and Nathan don't get started too. I'm too young to become an uncle! _he thought wryly._ Nah, never happen, they're too mature for that._

Suddenly, he heard a odd noise coming from a cluster of bushes about 50 feet behind him, a weird sort of cross between a gobble and a dove cooing.

" Hello, is anyone there ?", he asked aloud, " Hey, are you hurt ?" He shook his head, thinking _Dummy! An animal can't answer you. Let's see hat happens if I get closer._ And as usual, he put thought into action, slowly creeping towards the bushes. " Hey, won't you come out," he called as he cut the distance by a third. He stopped in his tracks as the noise coming from it suddenly grew louder, the branches moving as something suddenly leaped out.

Something Lex had never seen, not even in his wildest dreams.

Six sets of ears heard a heartstopping scream, that of a terrified child, coming from the jungle, the unmistakable tenor scream of the only child on the island.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The Stuff Nightmares Are Made Of

Day 45: Early Afternoon

At the sound the scream Daley leapt form the comfortable beach towel.

" That's Lex ! Come on Nathan!" she commanded as the screams continued to resound from the nearby jungle. She ran a fee paces forwards, turning back to here Nathan was hurriedly dressing.

_Thank God my beach shoes are slip ons, _Nathan thought ianly as he slipped into them, wincing as he accidentally caught a certain part of his anatomy in his zipper as he ran after his girlfriend. " That sounds close." he rasped as he fought down the pain and ran after Daley, " I think it came from near there, " he said, pointing a a dense cluster of trees about 150 yards off."

Daley couldn't spare the breath to agree, she simply trusted Nathan's instincts and struggled to keep up with him as the faster teen passed her.

Seconds earlier and two hundred yards on the other side of the copse of trees, Eric and Taylor had been floating around in the shallow, seeing ho could float closest to shore without beaching themselves hen they heard the terrified cries for help. Eric lost a few precious seconds due to having to check on Taylor, who'd been so startled that she'd dunked herself, swallowing a mouthful of warm ocean water in the process. Hauling her to her feet and pulling her behind him, the slim young man lunged towards shore.

" I think that's Lex! We'd better find him before he ruptures his lungs, " Eric said, torn between genuine fear for Lex and at the same time certain that the younger boys' endless curiosity had probably caused whatever trouble he was in. Even as those thoughts flickered through his head, Lex cried out again, sounding absolutely terrified. _No way is that one of his __**"Look what I found now yells; **__he's either hurt or something has him scared to death._

"It sounds like he's over there, " Taylor screeched in Eric's ear, pointing at a point near where they had seen Mel and Jackson gathering seashells earlier.

Even as Taylor spoke, Eric saw Jackson on the edge of the jungle , running towards the jungle at top speed, Mel keeping up the rear.

" Here comes Nathan and Daley, too, "Taylor said, pointing further up the beach at two rapidly approaching figures.

"Wave them in the direction Cody went Taylor, " Eric ordered as he took off after Mel and Jackson, " I'm gonna help them find Lex." With that, he ran off as fast as his long legs would take him in the sounds of the shouts for help.

**********************************************************

Lex clung desperately to the branches of the modest tree he'd climbed into when the bizarre creature had jumped out of the underbrush at him. The creature was prowling about the trunk, occasionally trying to climb it, only to fall each time. So far. Of course there was a reason it hadn't managed so for.

Despite it having six limbs, from the way one of the forelegs was bent, as well as the open wounds on it, it had been attacked by something as vicious as it. More to the point, it had a mid torso set of limbs, but the left limb of it seemed to have almost half of it ripped or bitten off. It was obviously in a bad way, but it seemed determined to have a last meal before it died.

_It's got to be one of the big monsters parasites, _the ten year old thought as he struggled to keep his grip as the thing shook the tree again in an effort to climb it, _and from what they said, it's got a neurotoxin that's almost always fatal. One bite and no more Lex. _Which caused him to scream for help once again. So low was his hope of being rescued that he nearly fell from shock when Cody Jackson's roar crashed into his ears.

" Lex!! Where are you ?" came the half frantic shout.

" I'm over here, up a tree, " he yelled back, peering about to find Jackson,.

_Darn it, the branches are blocking my view and Jackson's . _He called out a desperate warning: " Jackson be careful! It's one of the Cloverfield parasites and it hurt and pissed off! Don't let it bite you or you'll die!"

Jackson's blood seemed to turn to ice at Lex's warning. He sounded more determined to keep Jackson safe than himself. He felt a surge of anger at that._ I'm not about to let some fucking monster__** eat **__my little friend ! _Fortunately, Jackson hadn't left the compound without one of his spears, a habit he'd developed since the Russell ordeal. Better yet, even as he finally figured out which clump of trees Lex was in, unexpected aid arrived.

" Where's he at ? Is he ok? He scared the crap outta me'n Taylor." rambled Eric as he came up beside Jackson. Before Jackson could answer, they both whirled around at a crashing noise to the right of them. Nathan , Taylor, Daley and Mel appeared out of the verdant surroundings almost as if by magic.

" Where's my brother ? Is he ok?" Daley asked, sweat dripping from her unusually florid face, fear plain in her voice as she look at Jackson with dread."

" He's ok , for now, but he's trapped up a tree and you'd never believe what's treed him…" he muttered, spear clenched tight.

" What?!" Daley demanded , furious at the inaction while Lex screamed at the creature, it's odd noises now audiable to the group as they awaited Jackson's reply.

" One of the damned Cloverfield monsters, well, one of the parasites anyway." Jackson . " And you know how dangerous they are."

" Almost always fatal with just one bite," Mel said grimly, " unless the victim is lucky enough to be bite one the hand or foot and it gets amputated in minutes, before the neurotoxin spreads."

" All right! We know there're bad news, but _has_ he been bitten yet?! Daley roared as Nathan put a bracing arm on her to no avail.

" I'll find out," Jackson said firmly, determination plain on his youthful face as he immediately shouted to Lex, striding in that direction as he did:

" Lex! Has that thing bitten or scratched you anywhere, little buddy?", he asked, trying to put confidence in his voice even as he watched around carefully, in case the critter had friends nearby.

" I'm ok," the terrified treble voice of Lex called back, " Jackson, the one thing the radio said they hated was fire, if that helps."

The radio he as referring to was an old am one that Russell had stashed away. Unfortunately, it used a nine volt battery and they didn't have any replacement batteries for it once it had died, just a couple of days after their move here.. But Lex had sat in front of it and absorbed ever one of the infrequent "Monster Reports" that had all but ceased, along with all other communication, even before the radio had met its maker.

Jackson's mind raced furiously. Then it came to him. He still had his last of three lighters in his pocket. He'd virtually quit using it as they became better at making fire with Eric's firestarter lens, Nathan's bow/string method and especially with the discovery of matches (and gum!) encased in some of the MRE's. He'd carried it around more out of habit than anything else but now…

" Mel , Taylor and Daley, I need you guys to find some long sticks and some of the longer vines and leaves. Eric and Nathan, I want you to circle around to the far side of the tree Lex's trapped in . Don't be heroes," he added, a warning in his icy blue eyes, just help keep him talking and reassured."

" What's the plan Chief?" asked Eric.

" Simple. Just like in the old Frankenstein movies, the villagers are gonna get torches and burn the monster out."

" Are you crazy! We're just as likely to burn Lex or the whole damn jungle down!" Daley screamed in protest.

" Look up at the sky Daley." Jackson said calmly.

As she did, they all looked as well. Dark clouds were visible rolling in from the west. In fact, in the brief lull in their talking and Lex's shout, thunders could be heard. And based on past experience, when these clouds came, which would probably be shortly. They would have rain with them. Lots of it.

" I think we've got to worry more about a) getting drowned _before _we get the torches up and running and B) getting Lex before that thing does."

**********************************************************

It took nearly half an hour and their visibility had been halved by the now overcast sky. Heat lightning was rumbling and the wind was picking up sharply. They'd taken a suggestion of Nathan's to make a triangle of two people at each point. They had gotten into position and were now closing in. Jackson had shouted the plan to Lex, in the process, he'd had to get within sight of Lex and the boy's tormentor.

At first sight, Jackson thought the creature was some mutant offspring of a crab, a cobra and a Doberman, with a dash of raptor thrown in just case it wasn't mean enough. The damn thing had actually lunged at Jackson, but fortunately for him, it's wounds had weakened it enough for its attempt to come up short. Jackson and Daley approached the small tree where Lex was trapped. As they did, Jackson let out a piercing whistle, his signal to the other two groups to being distracting the monster.

While they had been making the makeshift torches, Taylor, of all people, had injected some sanity into Jackson's desperate plan.

" How will we get Lex away from that thing even if we're all chasing it with torches ?", she'd asked . reasonably enough.

To be honest Jackson had half figured he'd just try to break past the thing, grab Lex and haul ass while the others jumped in with their torches and he'd come back and finish the thing off, but Taylor had a point and so he'd come up with a revised plan that was both subtler and far safer.

" Hey, come and get us you freaky crab monster, " Taylor yelled as she stood by Nathan, who was calling out as well, deliberately getting close enough to the creature to entice it into shambling his was, hissing and growling. Just as the creepy crawler crept his way, the other prong of the distraction entered play.

" Come and get, it's suppertime!" was the outrageous war cry of Eric, who stood side by side with Mel, who was shouting at the monster as well.

It was a dangerous balancing act. The two groups were slowly but surely luring it to the furthest point of their triangle from Jackson and Daley's point. Lex was watching silently; he'd already been told to make his move as soon as Jackson and Daley came in .

"Now!" Jackson snapped , igniting his torch and quickly lighting Daleys with his as they hurried into the fray.

At the sight of them, Lex dropped from the tree and ran towards them as fast as he could. Unfortunately, the deep sea monstrosity seemed to sense his movement and it whirled from where Nathan was taunting it in pursuit of its potential meal. It was fast, hurt or not. Just when Lex as within twenty feet from Jackson, it pounced , it's 120 pound knocking his 75 pounds to the jungle floor hard. It raised back its head to strike at Lex's exposed neck…

And was knocked two yards backwards as Jackson's size 12 Timberland caught it squarely in it's hideous head. It was knocked a complete cartwheel by the blow. It lay there stunned just long enough for Jackson to pick Lex up and fling him to Daley.

" Fucking run!!" he commanded to them, never taking his eyes off the vile varmint. " Come on. let's finish it!" he ordered the other four.

They came as called, each one fighting down terror at the thought of what a single bite would mean. As planned , the girls held back, unless direly needed while the men closed in. Jackson dove in. He had the deadliest weapon there; he'd converted his spear into a flaming torch. The others were having to use hastily sharpened spears and torches as well, tieing both arms down.

"C'mon you bastard, " Jackson snarled, leaping forward to jab viciously at the animal. To his surprise, he actually hit it on the first try, the grey skinned thing squealing as the fiery spear hit it on it's oozing torn midlimb. Before it could move, Nathan and Eric ere striking it as well. The monster was confused by the multiple angles of attack. It managed a prodigious leap, actually over Eric's head and tried to scuttle away on to find its way blocked by Mel, Taylor and Daley, who'd ran back as soon as Lex was away. She didn't hesitant to lunge at it with her torch, hesitantly backed up by the two others.

It spun about , only to be met by the three males. It went for the smallest one in it's frenzy, Eric.

Who moved to attack and never even saw the gnarled branch that tripped him.

Who fell to his knees from the pain in his instantly sprained ankle.

Whose throat sprayed bright red blood as the monster slashed at him with it's bent forelimb, which was the only thing that kept it from biting its prey as the pain from using it stopped it just long enough for Jackson to literally jump on it , his spear driving deep into the throat and thorax. Nathan stabbed it as well, followed by Mel. Within seconds it was dead.

The instant it quit moving, Mel and Jackson were at the critically injured Eric's side. Fortunately for Eric, he'd lost consciousness. His throat had a three inch long gash in it, gushing blood copiously. The cut was , miraculously, not so much deep as long, although it was deep enough. Life threateningly so.

" How bad is it Mel ?" , the fear in Jackson's voice plain as he knelt by his fallen loved one, almost as pale as the unconscious Eric.

Mel didn't respond at first, she was frantically trying to improvise a tourniquet , out of her shirt, to staunch the blood flow. Her pale green bra was all she had up top. It wasn't even a consideration as she issued a command to Jackson: " Cody, I need you to bring the first aid kit here as fast as you can! There are blood expanders and bandages in it and before we can move him, I've got to try to slow the loss of blood. Hurry!" she said unnecessarily as he was already ten yards off by now. The three others were gathered around in a loose circle, watching with dread.

Jackson ran towards the Hotel Tango faster than he'd ever ran in his life, spurred on by his greatest fear.

The virtual certainty that he was about to have to watch a loved on bleed to death before his eyes for the second time in his life.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Reflections On Death

Day 45: Mid-afternoon

As Cody Jackson ran towards the Hotel Tango, faster and harder than he'd ever ran in his life, a torrent of painful memories threatened to crash over him like the waves of a typhoon. Half repressed memories of the most painful event of his 16 and a half years of life, the one thing he'd never talked about even with Mel and Eric. The tragic death of his father, John Jackson.

As a child and then a young man, Cody had idolized his father. He was tall, handsome, had loved music and most importantly, had seemed incapable of not making people feel loved and appreciated. Not just Cody and his mother, but friends of theirs and even the few friends Jackson had made, due to the need to move so often with his dad's job, a trouble shooter for a large railroad company.

" If I'd know I'd become a railroad tramp myself, I'd have become a plumber instead." was the sole true complaint John Jackson had ever made consistently as far as Cody could remember. It was hard, they'd moved, by his count, ten times in as many years. Some of the moves, like when they had spent almost a year in rural Northeast Mississippi had actually been good. He'd even gotten to live just a few miles don the road from his grandfather, his mother's father and her sole surviving relative. Her mother had died from a stroke when Cody was only and infant and she'd been an only child. There had never been contact with his dads side of the family for a very simple reason; he'd been placed in an orphanage at birth and to make matters worse, he was born a hemophiliac . Needless to say, no one would adopt a child with such a potentially deadly illness. By the time he was fifteen, John Jackson, and the last name known only at his birthmother's insistance, had been through four foster family's and had decided he'd had enough of the system. For another year he'd studied hard and done enough odd jobs to pay the fees to have himself emancipated.

He'd lived on his on for six long years, taking any type of work that would keep him fed and housed when a far older coworker had encouraged him to get his GED and apply for college. " Johnnycake," sixty year old Bertha Jorkins had said, calling him by her pet name in her deep Southern accent, " you're too damn smart to be workin' in a fast foot joint the rest of your life. Get an education and get the hell out of here." John would frequently tell that story all of his life, " It was the most profane pep talk you ever heard; ol' Bertie threatened to stomp my ass if I didn't do as she said and believe me son, " he'd say, blue eyes twinkling, " when a six foot, two hundred pound woman who could lift four fifty pound bags of flour at once gives you orders, you listen!"

It was in his second year of night school when he'd met the love of his life, Judith Jenkins. Within the year, the two were engaged. One month after graduation, they were married. The year after, Cody was born, the same eek as the railroad offered an entry level job to John Jackson. For the next fifteen years , travel was the great constant in their life.

While they had never been rich, by any means, they had been well enough off that Judith only worked as a LPN for three shifts a eek. So she could seen time with Jackson and the increasingly rare time with John. So it had gone for years until she'd finally had enough.. She threatened to divorce him and take their son to Mississippi if he couldn't get a permanent posting. After a tense six weeks, John took an opening in the Los Angeles offices, although it was a reduced level, not management.

The first three months were good. Cody got to see his dad every day. The sole tension came when Judith had to go to work in a hospital full time. The work wasn't what bothered her, the late night hours did. She'd frequently call John and have him meet her there on the nights she worked over, saying she was too nervous to drive in the LA traffic . It was on one of these nights tragedy had struck.

Judith had been working in the ER, helping with triage when a angry young man, half crazed from a combination of meth and alcohol had accosted her and another nurse. They had gotten security to detain him, but he'd broken free . A terrified call to the apartment home had gotten John and Cody there to pick her up at 3 a.m. When they got to the parking section after picking her up inside, Judith's car would not crank; she'd left the key in the venerable 1985 Pontiac Sunbird and the foglights had never ent off. They had to go out to the public area hen John had parked. Unfortunately, the would be assailant from earlier was also in the lot, hiding.

It must have seemed like a gift from above to the deranged man. He'd aited until the three were almost to their car before running up to strike John in the back of the head with a enormous wrench he'd stolen from an unlocked maintenance section. He'd knocked Cody to the ground almost contemptuously, as the six foot man easily outweighed him by twenty five pounds and had rage and strength on his side. He'd also proven to have a backup weapon, a box cutter that he'd put to Judith's throat and as about to use John tackled him in desperation. He'd been able to free Judith and was reaching over to grab Cody, who had hit his head in his fall, when the lunatic had stabbed him in the back, then once in the neck before turning to run. As Judith tried desperately to staunch the blood flow , screaming for help all the time, Cody was forced to helplessly watch as the light forever left John Edward Jackson's eyes.

The next year had been hell. Within three months, Judith had begun drinking heavily and lost her job. She'd had to move to a far more dangerous section of town. Jackson had to become used to being one of only five Caucasians at his new school. It was only through his assumed air of indiffence, his ability to see things happening and keep silent and his obvious neutrality to the whole race issue that let him survive and even make friends with a handful of the Samoans there. All the while Judith, who blamed herself for the death, steadily worsened. Seven months after John died, Judith was arrested at her home, in front of her terrified son, for stealing prescription medication from work. She was sentenced to probation, but subject to a year of rehab first. Cody was immediately placed in the warms hands of the California childrens services. He'd been flatly told that his mother was not going to see him if he got into trouble or if she didn't do well at the rehabilitation facility.

Jackson firmly shut these thoughts off as he raced into the ancient building, snagged the large first aid bag, recently upgraded by some first aid kits Lex and Eric had found in Russell's hiding places, and took off to where Eric lay. Possibly dieing.

Possibly already dead.

The thunder boomed overhead as the sandy haired man raced don the coastline, aving crashing onto the beach less than thirty feet away.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Once A Cheater…

Day 45: Mid-afternoon

The harsh winds were beginning to make the branches bow around him as Jackson plunged into jungle, first aid bag slapping at his side on every stride of his long legs. He leaped over fallen trees and crashed through shrubs unless he came across one so big he _had _to go around it, not even sparing a glance at them in his furious passing. Finally, he saw the group, all but Mel and Eric, who were in the midst of the cluster.

He panted as he broke inside without a word, dropping the bag beside Melissa Wu as he went to one knee, breathing raggedly as he looked at Eric, the improvised bandages on his neck damp with blood, Mel constantly putting pressure on them to slow the blood loss.

She spoke with fear in her voice, but the kind of determination she'd leaned from years of being around her surgeon parents, " Here, keep pressure on the bandages while I get the blood expanders and the bandages and gauze out." She waved Daley over to help et the supplies from the bag as Jackson gingerly put pressure on. Too gingerly, "Cody, you've got to be firm, even if it hurts him," Mel snapped at him, " if he loses it too fast, he could go into a coma, not just shock. " As she spoke, another thought flickered through her racing mind, " Daley, give Lex your outer shirt,"" meaning the white shirt the fair skinned girl usually wore to keep from constantly blistering in the sunlight, " Lex, " she told the scared boy, " wrap it around Eric sweetie, we've got to keep him warm, "

" Yeah, or the shock could make his blood pressure bottom out with the wound," the gifted young boy said, finishing Mel's sentence for her as he hurried to obey.

" Nathan, Taylor," she ordered as she began to open a packages of gauze while Daley got the bandages ready, " go get the travois we carried here. And grab our raingear; it may be storming by the time you get here and the last thing Eric need right now is to get wet ."

"We're on it! C'mon Taylor, " the brown skinned young man said, pulling Taylor into a jog with him, her honey blonde hair waving wildly as she went.

Jackson fought down waves of nausea as he felt and worse, _smelt _the coppery blood saturating the makeshift bandages. He turned his head to spit as Lex went up and knelt beside him. The small, tanned young Latino put a hand on Jackson's arm, speaking to him in a low voice:

" I could probably do this for a minute if you need to, uh, you know," he said, looking at Eric, still shaking from the enormous scare he'd already been through.

Even at a time like this, Jackson managed a wan smile at Lexs words. _Even as big a jerk as Eric usually is with him, the little guy cares about him. Not many kids his age would offer to hold a compress on a slashed throat so a guy nearly twice their age could go puke._

" I'll manage Lex, thanks," he replied, looking up as the two girls shadows fell over him. Their arms and hands were festooned with gauze, antiseptic and bandages. " You're not gonna be able to close his neck up with that stuff, " he said tersely.

" This is just to get him back to the Hotel Tango Jackson," Mel explained as she and Daley knelt down, " the real fun is going to happen when we get him there."

Jackson stared expectantly at her.

" The first aid kits Lex found were military issue, they had supplies like sutures and even some of the chemical stitch kits.. Of course, there're are two more things to deal with, " she broke off as she tried to find a way to voice her fears without making Jackson worse or scaring Lex more.

" Even if we get him there, he's lot _a lot_ of blood," she stressed, " what I have do do is actually fairly simple; se the cut up. But, I have no way to check his blood pressure and I could kill him trying to save him."

Jackson sucked in a breath harshly then hurried to say: " Mel, he'll die if you don't try."

" I'm going to," she assured him firmly, " It's just that the other problem is he's going to need a transfusion."

Jackson stared at her blankly for a moment. " How the fucking hell are we gonna do that in the middle of the goddamn jungle Mel!" he said explosively. The extreme profanity underscoring just how scared he was.

It was Lex who answered, " There are two transfusion kits, we brought one and there was one in a first aid kit. We can get our blood types from our passports. I'm type A+, if that helps any, " he said, looking at the others.

" You're way to little to donate blood Lex." Daley was quick to say.

" She's right," Mel added, "besides, until we check Eric's passport, we don't know what his blood type is. A wrong match would kill him too, from anaphylactic shock, just like the oyster he was allergic to."

Daley spoke up, " Lex. Go on up to the camp and look over everone's passports so e can see if there's a match for Eric and find out his blood type while you're looking."

The boy jumped up and ran, grateful to be doing something other than sitting while the girls, with Cody's aid, set to bandaging Eric.

***********************************************************

Twenty minutes later, the groups was back together in the section of the ruins where Ian, Jory and the unlamented Russell had stayed, during the daytime at least. Lex had barely gotten out of sight when Taylor and Nathan had arrived with the travois. After hurriedly wrapping Eric, they had left, getting caught by the blast of torrential rain just as they entered the abandoned compound. Lex and Taylor had searched through the backpacks for the others passport and looked at the emergency medical information nn therein. Alexander Marin walked up and gave the news to Melissa, who, with Jackson, was stripping the clothes off of Eric while Daley and Nathan were using old barrels to make a platform for Mel.

" Taylor," Mel said as she wrapped Ian Milbauers sleeping bag around the naked Eric, " I need every lamp we have, as close to the platform as you can get it."

" Ok, I'll get them, " the smaller teen said, reaching out to touch Eric's head for a second before hurriedly turning to the task.

" What did you two find out ?" Jackson asked as he sat by Eric, kneading his hands together in frustration.

" Ok, Eric has Type O+, that's what they call a universal donor, he could donate to anyone, but he can only receive from another O+. Nathan and Taylor are both Type AB+, Daley is Type A, Melissa is Type B." He looked up at Jackson, brown eyes meeting blue across a twenty five inch gap," You're the only other Type O+ person here."

" And that's a problem," Mel interjected, " You could give him a pint of blood. That's not that big of a loss ; you'd feel better in a day of so. But it takes a week, at least, before it's really safe to donate again . Except in a really dire situation."

Jackson cocked his head a hissed sarcastically, " That's daily life here, huh Mel." He shook his head and apologized , " Sorry, it's just that, damn, is there ever gonna be anything simple about just staying alive on the fuckin' island."

" At least you're not bored."

Jackson stared at her for a second in shock, then surprised both of them with a genuine bark of laughter. " Give me the boredom any day. All right, what do we have to do ?"

" Well, I managed to get him to swallow the blood expanders; that'll slow down the blood loss. We need to get you a platform too, so we can make sure the blood flows not out of whack. Balance. Whatever." she said as Nathan and Daley walked over, fresh from putting the platform in place.

" We'll get it . I'll help you two." Jackson said.

"Let's move Eric first," Mel said quickly, " I want him as comfortable as possible. We need to kind of tie him down too. If he thrashes around or grabs at his throat, it'll be really, really bad."

Ten more long minutes passed, seeming like as many hours as they went to their business swiftly. Eric now bore a resemblance to a mummy, they'd tied him down with everything they had, from belts to shoelaces. By now, a matching platform had been built for Jackson, who was alternating between deep concern for Eric, anxiety over Mel's visibly fraying temper and an almost primal fear of the iv needles literally making his skin crawl. Hastily suppressed memories of the last last time a needle had broken his skin echoing in his head. Visions of the insane Robert Russell laughing when he plunged a needle of the designed drug Subversion into his veins, causing him to lose control over his own sex drives dancing behind his eyes.

" I think we're ready." Mel said, as she looked at him from where she and Daley had been washing and preparing Eric. She touched his unshaven cheek and whispered to him, " I know hat's on your mind. I know why you hate needles and I know you're almost as scared of me failing as of Eric dying. Don't be scared. I love the to of you and I'll do my best. She leaned over and kissed his cheek , so lightly it was almost like a dream.

Moments later, Jackson, ho's arm had been swabbed down by Taylor, lay, his life's blood flowing from him into the still, almost dead body of his closest, most loved male friend of his life.

It was almost easy, in retrospect. Mel was nearly finished after a grueling half hour of working on the wound with no training and little help. Almost, until Eric work up with a violent start, a horrifying, incoherent scream of anguish rising from his torn throat.

"AHHH! AHH! OH MY FUCKING GOD IT HURTS**!!!" **He'd belloed in agony, restraints tested to the limit as he flailed."

" Grab him before he tears the stitches loose thrashing. I'm almost finished, but I need him still!" Mel had commanded Nathan, whom she'd had the foresight to have at the ready, just for something like this.

Nate had forced Eric's head down, but the terrified teen still struggled mightily. " ERIC HOLD STILL!!" the springy haired man had pleaded loudly, " OW!", Nathan cried out in unexpected pain, " the little fucker bit me!". Despite his pain, he held on, grimacing as a pair of hands reached around his and held Eric as well."

His arm dripping blood from here he'd torn the iv loose, Cody Jackson struggled to hold Eric down while Nathan withdrew, moving don to push at the teens chest, to try too stop his bucking. He spoke to the injured youth firmly, but ith his emotions plain in his voice.

" Eric, quit fighting us man! Mel's trying to stop you from bleeding to death but she can't fight you and do it. I know it hurt like hell, but you'll die if you don't quit this bullshit! Don't you understand, you'll die! And I won't fucking lose another person here, dammit ! I fucking can't!"

The words, spoken with such fierce emotion, finally seemed to sink in . The ginger haired man sank back down, but his left hand beckoned. Jackson swapped places with Nathan ( who was making sure he kept his hands away from the possibly carnivorous Eric's mouth) and pressed down lightly with his right while gripping Eric's hand with his free one. He saw Eric flinch, felt it as well as Mel resumed. When the pain forced a groan from Eric, Jackson said:

" Squeeze my hand when it hurts. Don't move, just squeeze. Don't worry you won't hurt me." He barely held down a gasp of his own as Eric did so ith amazing power for such a slightly built man. Seconds later, he went limp as Mel spoke up.

" That's it, we're done." she said , even as he collapsed. She hurriedly

Checked his pulse and breathing before speaking to the shuddering Cody.

" He's ok for now Jackson. I think it's the strain, the pain and blood loss more than anything else. His body needs rest. Yours does too. Quit worrying about Eric; he managed to cheat death again. Once a cheater…"

Jackson lay back don on the improvised platform and the tears of fear began to fall as Mel held him. The others silently left the room, knowing that Mel would call them if they were needed , knowing that at this moment, Jackson needed her as badly in his on way as Eric did.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Recovering Nicely

Day 46 : Early Morning

The night had gone poorly, not just for Eric, but for the rest as well. One squall after another had rocked the small island and the moldering building they had taken shelter in. By Lex's count, no less than six of the storms had went over, with a twenty five minute interval being the longer rain free time of the night. Nathan had put a few of the few precious gallons of kerosene into the smaller generator to power a 1950's era fan Lex had managed to get working again. It was barely sufficing to stir the muggy air and was failing miserably in its intended role of actually _cooling_ anyone.

Melissa groggily arose from her sleeping bag, a scant five feet from Eric, awoken by a low moan of pain from the injured teen. She stumbled to him in the faint pre dawn light and put a hand to his forehead. _Uh-oh, he's more feverish now than he was just a couple of hours ago. I don't know hat else I can do for him now, _she thought dejectedly, reaching over to squirt water onto a cloth, then wiping Eric's hot face with it in an effort to bring even momentary relief. _I can't risk giving him aspirin and there's only a few packs of ibuprofen left. He'll need them later. Besides, he's taken ten of them in just twelve hours; they'll start hurting him if he keeps eating them like candy._ Her silent reverie was interrupted as Eric grunted her name.

" Mel, it hurts. It feels like my throats on fire. Can't you do anything?" he begged , looking years younger than his actual age as he pleaded, straining against the restraints.

" Oh Eric, " she answered, fighting back incipient tears at the pain in his voice, " it'll make you sick if I give you more pain med just yet. It's just too soon I'll give you some in a little while, ok ?" she pleaded, rubbing his shoulder softly.

Tears slid from his hazel eyes as nodded fractionally, trying fervently not to agitate his throbbing neck. " Will you at least loose some of these belts and things? I won't grab my throat, I'm awake now."

" Ok , that I can do," she responded and began loosening the top few, cautioning him, " Don't thrash around Eric, it'll make you feel worse."

When she had finished, she spoke to him again, " Is that better ?"

" Yeah," he grated as a spasm of pain made his entire body contract. He clenched his large, bony fists and hissed at the pain. After a minute, he lay back, then sighed."

" What is it?" Mel asked, reaching out to take one of his hands.

" I hate being hurt. My ankle is throbbing and my throat nearly got ripped out by one of Godzilla's fleas," He suddenly got a frightened look on his face as his thoughts and memories snapped into place. " Damn." he cursed, " Is Lex ok ? And everyone else?" he started to sit up and look around, but Mel held his shoulders down.

' Shhh," she shushed him so as to not wake everyone up, " Lex is fine. Everyone else is ok, just tired from fighting that thing and getting you seen too and all the storms. Don't worry."

" What about Cody ?" he asked, " Is he ok?"

Mel smiled faintly as she answered, thinking _I know we're both in love _with_ the same guy, but it's still so weird to see Eric worry about someone other than himself_ , " He's ok. Just worn out from killing that thing, worrying about you and Lex , oh, and you and his new relationship." she said, an enigmatic grin on her face.

Eric's bewilderment was plain. " What new relationship?" he asked somewhat testily.

" He gave about a pint and a half of blood to you. You're blood brothers now."

What Eric said next finally assured Mel than pain or no pain, Eric had to be the most irrepressible human being she'd ever met.

" Well, that's another one of his bodily fluids I have in me now."

***************************************************************

Cody Jackson woke up slowly and in discomfort from spot on the floor near Eric. He'd been awakened by the low noise of the conversation, although he'd been to groggy to make anything out. He threw back the edge of his sleeping bag and sat up. Too fast, as the dull thudding in his head, caused by a combination of blood loss, fatigue and stress made him see green. His stomach heaved momentarily as well. Fighting his discomfort down, he struggled to his feet, swaying slightly as a yawn tore loose from him. He stretched for a moment before walking barefoot the few steps to Mel and Eric.

" How're you doin' man?" he asked, leaning over the side, resting his hands on the edge of the makeshift cot/ He hesitantly raised a hand, then, with growing confidence as Mel smiled, reached over to gently tousle Eric's hair.

" I'm still here," Eric croaked back, clearing his throat, " You know me, I'm charmed. Even a monster can't do me in. Just tired" His confident words were given the lie though as a hideous jolt of pain struck him, causing him to cry out sharply and tears to drop seconds later as his wound began to throb again from the lack of painkilling medication.

Mel locked eyes with Jackson as they bought fought to give Eric what scanty aid they could, giving a silent message _he doesn't need to know how bad it is, we'll talk away from him._ He nodded assent as they comforted their hurt friend.

Minutes later, they were outside, given a break by Taylor and Daley, who'd came in just as Eric's spasms subsided. They sat on the stoop of the old facility, Jackson looking more and more depressed as Mel talked to him.

" I just don't know how good his chances are Jackson. I may have had first aid training and the medical book Abby had are a big help, but there's so much that can go wrong, " she said wearily, brown eyes downcast, " the humidity'll be hard on his wound, the bugs won't help, and we may wind up using all of our pain meds, what we have , and not have anything if anyone else needs it."

Jackson nodded in grim acknowledgment of her words. He has still for a moment, then spoke hesitantly, " I realize we have to help Eric, to the best we can. We can't do anything less, but you're right. We're gonna run out ,especially since what we have jus isn't strong enough to help him, But there is something here that could make the pain go away…"

Mel's eyes grew wide. " Jackson, " she said in horror, " You're not saying we just let Eric do without or that we put his down like a hurt animal ?!" she gasped. Then a split second later, she said" I'm sorry, I know you don't mean to do either of those thing," her heart threatening to stop from the betrayed expression on his face at her other words still lingering , " but what else can we do." As she spoke, they could hear a loud cry of pain in the distance.

Jackson had a look of desperation on his face as he gripped Mel's hands in his own and spoke with urgency, " Did you hear that? That's the sound of a man who let himself be raped and nearly beaten to death to give us a chance to escape. Who helped the rest of us fight Russell to the death, who helped keep me from killing myself as much as you did. He's hurt now because of trying to keep Lex alive. I owe him my life even more than he owes me for anything I've ever done. I love him like I love you and I love you love him and as more than a friend too." He reached a hand up to Melissa face and cupped it , looking into her eyes and speaking earnestly, " The sole legacy other than nightmares the captain left us was this," he said, standing up and pulling a small bottles of pills from a pocket on his shorts, " this has the last half dozen Subversion pills in it."

Mel looked at the bottle as if it could somehow explode and kill them both.

" Cody, that stuff is dangerous! You , me, Eric, we were all hooked after just a single pill! It took Eric over a week to quit having withdrawal symptoms and you still have them!"

He stood there, looking at the bottle with loathing of his own. The contents of this bottle, combined with a shot of the liquid had once reduced him to nothing but a vessel for his sexual desires, even the repressed ones no one in their sane minds would ever act out. He'd done things under it's effect he'd take to his grave . But even so, " Mel, it would turn the pain into pleasure. He'd rub one out while you cut off an arm on this shit. Yeah, " he admitted, " he'd go through withdrawal all over, probable as bad as mine, but can we just let him suffer?! Listen!" he demanded, gesturing towards the Tango, where Eric's pleas for relief could still be hear. They were growing steadily louder. " I can't do it," he said, pleading with her, " I can't bear to hear that, because of ho I care about him and I know you care too. It's the only way."

Melissa stood up, her thoughts in turmoil as she weighed the options and considered the ups and downs. " Cody, you know hat the other effect will be. He'll want sex. The whole time he's on it. "

" We'll have to keep him restrained."

Mel added, " He'll scare the hell out of the others and Lex'll have to stay away. This kind of crap he's too young to see."

" I know. It'll be rough, but I'd rather give him a few of these than let him go crazy from the pain. Besides, we'll cut the dosage by at least half. Or better yet don to a third ."

" This is a seriously messes up conversation Cody." she said ruefully, " But if we're going to do this, we need to get it over with."

As she started to walk in, Jackson grabbed her , spinning her around to embrace her. He whispered into her ear as she melted into him:" I know our threesome deal is painful, but I love you both. At a time like this, I realize I need both of you for different reasons and I love you for different reasons. It's your being willing to help him that makes me love you even more." He kissed her passionately, then released her.

" I love you. I even love Eric. But ," she added archly, " if he gets, grabby while he's on that, I'll hit him first and YOU second."

They walked back in arm in arm.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Building Momentum, Spinning Wheels

Day 48 Mid-morning

The next two days seemed to be the apex of Eric's fever and the worst times seemed to have finally passed, mercifully. Mel had given him the reduced amount of Subversion with trepidation. While it hadn't completely stripped him of his always precarious hold over his sex drive, it had definitely increased it, as several incidents, especially when his fever rose, proved:

He'd begun hallucination when his fever peaked at 101. When a concerned Taylor, who'd had her hair in pigtails, and Nathan had went in to check on him, he'd cried out:

" It's Dorothy and Toto! Hey, Toto, I gotta bone you can fetch!" And he'd hipped his impressively large erection out to their horror. Nathan had nearly sprained his own ankle as he spun to leave, tripping over a hysterically laughing Daley, who'd come in to see what was happening. Taylor had come within a heart beat of attacking the invalid, until Jackson had been forced to literally pick her up and set he outside the room.

He had not left Daley out either, shouting each time he saw her, " Her head's on fire, her heads on fire!"

Even Lex had had a taste of it, as he'd brought Eric's food in to him.

" It's a leprechaun ! Or a munchkin. Or, no, it's Dobby from Harry Potter!"

While many of the incidents were amusing, some weren't.

Like the two hour long flashback to his being raped by Captain Russell, being violated by an enormous length of wood. His hideous pleas had made Mel break down and cry and had Jackson waking up screaming himself after calming the restless Eric down. Eric had cried himself to sleep and slept for almost 10 hours, the longest single stretch he'd had.

O f course, that wasn't all. Eric had gotten a raging erection within minutes of taking the first third of a tablet. Within a half hour, he'd been openly playing with himself. An hour later, he'd just finished jerking off for the third time. Then he'd started getting **really** horny. And he didn't care who knew. As Nathan had found out when he'd brought some water in. He'd stumbled over a loose board and dropped the water bottle near the bed. When the young man had bent over to get it, Eric had reached over and quite unabashedly reached out and grabbed a handful of Nathan's butt.

" Nathan, Nathan, wow, you gotta firm ass, "Eric had babbled happily, " Man I'd like to tag you and Cody at the same time!"

" **Dude, I'm not like that!"** Nathan had screeched, dropping the bottle and jumping across the room in a single bound.

Nathan had nearly broken the sound barrier in his retreat. He'd yet to make an appearance in the last twelve hours. It was even more blatant when Jackson was in the room, or Mel for than matter.

" Oh God, it hurts!" he'd cried out to the two of them. They'd gathered around to comfort him.

" Is it your neck or your ankle bothering you," Mel had asked with concern.

" No! It's my dick! Somebody please suck it 'til the swelling goes down.!"

Which, in the end, Jackson had quite simply had to do it. Eric's demands had grown so loud that everyone there knew what he wanted. And they would know by the silence thereafter that he'd gotten what he wanted. To his amazement, Mel had asked to watch.

" You're joking, right?" he'd asked, his voice cracking in surprise. His eyebros had shot to his forehead in his disbelief.

" No. I really want to see you doing this of your on free will." she'd answered simply. " You'd better get started before he tries to get loose again."

With a last backwards glance at Mel, he'd went down on his lover , while his other lover had watched, one of the most surreal experiences of his life. He was busily working on the reddened staff when he felt Mel's hands on his own zipper. To his delight, Mel swiftly and silently opened his fly and gripped his on bobbing shaft, full lips engulfing his jutting phallus. One of his newer unmentionable fantasies was fulfilled when he and Eric both erupted almost simultaneously, Eric filling his mouth while he filled Mel's, he and her swallowing at the same time.

Finally, three days after being assaulted by the creepy crustacean, Eric had been stable enough to be allowed to walk outside, aided by Nathan and Jackson. Nathan was somewhat nervous about being in contact with Eric since their encounter, warning him,

" Dude, you grab at my butt just once and I'll put you back on that stretcher." he's threatened, unfazed by the hard glance Jackson gave him.

Eric fought to keep a cross between a grimace of shame and a grin of delight from crossing his overly expressive face at Nathan's astringent tone.

" Relax man, I haven't had my sex med today." he struggled to say with a straight face. He fought to keep from grunting as Cody not -quite-accidentally stepped on his foot, a subtle sign to be quiet and leave the discomfited Nathan alone.

" Whoa, " Eric sighed, taking a good look around and enjoying the air, which was somewhat cooler today than it had been in over a week, "I'd almost forgotten what it feels like to be outside. Man, that breeze feels good." With the to others helping him, he sat on the crumbling old steps while the rest of the group gathered near for a progress report from the leader, Jackson the sun beating down upon the group.

" Ok guys," he began, crossing his long arms on his chest and leaning back and forth slightly as he spoke, " Even after Eric's injury," he nodded at that worthy, who tipped hit battered hat in response, " We're at least even with we're we'd hoped to be. I've gotten the frame for the main hull about done. I'm ready to start on the spars and the outrigging, when Lex and Mel get a chance to help. Daley's nearly finished with making the sails and Taylor's managed to weave a dozen ropes for us and found a couple of yards more helping Lex on his scavenger hunts. Mel's been doing great on gathering fruit and she's even managed to make a couple of "coolers" of sorts, for the boat."

" Way to go Mel, " Nathan said encouragingly, a broad grin on his face from here he sat crosslegged on the ground, with Daley's head nestled on his shoulder.

" Good job ," Taylor added graciously from her perch, sharing the steps by Eric, occasionally swatting at his hands as he tried furtively to flick her ear from behind.

_Thank God we gave him the last pill yesterday or I'd be kicking his skinny ass off of Taylor, _Jackson thought, bemused at their play. " We're building momentum with our projects; the last thing we need to do is start spinning our wheels again. But," he said warningly, " remember: we never know if one of those monster is nearby. That being said, Nathan and I spent most of the morning improving some weapons for everyone. Ok, Mister Society For Creative Anachronisms, show them what we made for them," he said to the half Italian half African American 16 year old .

He gently moved Daley aside as he got up and around to stand beside Jackson. He put his hands on the hips of his tan cargo pants and spoke to the others.

" Jackson and I made up a supply of the torches and spears we've been using. We're going to have to start carrying one with us at all times, one or the other. We found two knives that Jackson is sharpening . Since he and I both have one, we'll give Mel and Daley the other two for now, since their chores take them out closest to the jungle." The two girls exchanged somewhat uneasy looks at that before Jackson spoke again.

" We have a new rule too, well," he did one of his odd headshakes, " really two, nut one only involves Lex. Lex," he said, motioning the boy up beside him, putting a hand on his small shoulder and looking at him as he talked, " you've been our main innovator, the brain of the group, from the very first. That makes you valuable. You're also the youngest and," an abashed look on his face as he went to one knee to speak directly to the boy, who returned the gaze steadily, " you're the most vulnerable of us physically. From here on out, you don't go anywhere in camp without at least one of us and you Do Not," he emphasized strongly, " go into the jungle for Any reason unless there are two of us with you and it's work related . I'm sorry if it makes you feel crowded Lex, "' he said apologetically, " but we can't risk losing you. Not because of ho many things you do for us, but because it's just not justifiable for us to not keep an eye on you. Do you understand, little buddy?'

" Yeah, I guess I do," he answered, then asked, a look of unease on his face beneath his omnipresent Hartwell High cap, " Does the latrine count as in camp or out?"

Cody fought down a guffaw at Lex's tone. " If you need to go, go, just tell some one." He felt a tinge of sympathy for the youngster then, _God knows I'd hate to have to announce when I needed to leak a leak or a dump to the whole world. But it __**is**__ for his own safety. _"It's not that big of a deal, is it?"

" No, I guess not," Lex answered, going to sit back as Jackson spoke to the group again.

" Nathan and I are also making some pits, scattered around the perimeter. We'll show them as soon as we get them dug so no one falls in. e have to be careful guys." He swept the assembly with his eyes, his emotions showing in his voice, " We nearly lost Eric and Lex to one of these things and it was hurt and outnumbered 7 to one and it still nearly got two of us. I don't want to have to bury any of you , or for you guys to have to bury me."

" Be careful. You can't be careful enough, even if it slows our leaving this island down a day or two. You can't leave it if you're already dead." At this, he asked the group: " Enough morbid stuff; anyone have any announcements?"

Lex stood back up, one of the small metal drinking cups he'd found in the ruins in his hands. His dark brown eyes twinkled with excitement as he made his announcement to the group. " I have something to show you all. It's too soon to use it for the trip, but it may still come in handy. It's a compass I made." He grinned at them as the comments came at him."

" Yea Lex!" from Mel, smiling brightly at him.

" The Genius does it again!' was Eric's pithy comment, moderated some by a genuine grin for the boy he'd gotten bitten protecting.

" Good work Lex." Nathan added.

" How'd you make a compass in the middle of nowhere ?' Taylor asked , skeptically, giving the compass a distrusting glance.

" It was actually easy, once I thought to use one of the needles from the sewing kit, oh, and your wool top." he told her, to an almost inevitable honk of outrage.

" You went prowling through my clothes?! You little creep, I hate it when people touch my clothes!" the blonde shrilled angrily .

" Yeah, tell me about it," muttered Mel, who'd had an epic row with Taylor over accidentally scorching one of her blouses, which Mel had honestly mistaken for her at the time," Lex better watch it, she might run him out of camp like she did me." She murmured sotto voice to a softly giggling Daley.

Jackson waved at them to be silent as he encouraged Lex, " Go on."

" I remember that if you rub a needle of wool or another conductor it magnetizes it. So, I tried it and now we have a compass. If we can spare another needle, I'll make a backup."

Unexpectedly Eric broke in: " Hey, I found a big old time watch the other day , I mean it's really big."

Daley butted in, " Interesting, but Lex as speaking about something a little more important than an old watch."

" No smartass, " Eric went on, ignoring the mean look Nathan gave him as he insulted Daley, " I was thinking, maybe Lex could take the top off the watch and put the needle on it. If it'll hold water so the needle can float. It'd be less likely to be dropped that way." He raised cinnamon colored eyebrows at Lex as he waited for a reply.

" That could work," the Latino boy said with enthusiasm, " and I was worried myself about maybe losing the compass if a wave hit us. I'll take a look at it later. Good idea Eric." he said, rare and high praise from him to his past tormentor.

" I kept telling everyone I should be the idea man, but no, if was always " Lug water Eric, you're too stupid to do anything else…" , obviously prepared to go into a full fledge diatribe about his past oppression, He quieted at a gimlet look from Jackson.

" Ok, you two can get together this afternoon and try to work on that for a while, but for now, and I never thought I'd have to say this to you, but Eric, get some sleep."

Six set of unbelieving eyes stared at him. Then the laughing started.

" Seriously, you're pale as a ghost. Rest and get better because we're shorthanded without you. There's a lot to do still before we can start island hopping. Go snore while we get back to work." He walked over and helped the injured teen up, gently shoving him in the direction of the improvised "hospital", then turned and looked expectantly at the others. They got up and did as he'd asked, returning to the daily struggle to survive this nightmare.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Fears Exposed

Day 56: Mid-morning

Another week had passed slowly for the survivors of Flight 29 DWN, It had been long, hard and especially, hot. And wet. The days had seemingly fallen into a routine of morning rain, seven to nine hours of sun, then an afternoon rain. The humidity was unbelievable to seven youths who'd had no prior tropical experience to gauge it by. They had been four days without any electricity at all as Jackson had adamantly refused to lower the supply of kerosene any further, telling them to remember to look to it's use on the voyage to the other isles. As a result, sleep had become even more scarce to come by. And it was taking a steady toll on all of them, mentally and physically.

Tempers were the shortest that they'd been in over a month. Eric had joked and clowned around, but by now even his sense of humor was fading rapidly. He'd begun turning his slowly rising strength to actually working. A sure sign of how morale had lowered in the last four or five days. It wasn't all gloom and doom however.

The rough catamaran like hull of the boat was all but finished. Lex, Mel and Jackson had experimented with a dozen different trees and ferns before finally coming up with a crude but effective caulking. The boat was buttressed by every floatable device they could improvise. As soon as the benches and storage spaces were complete, they'd give it it's " sea trials" as Jackosn had called them, test to see if they boat would float of flop, as Nathan put it. Jackson had estimated no more than three more days until they could test it. If it worked, they'd spend to days adding the finishing touches, spend another two days of rest, then depart as soon as possible.

At the moment, he was flat on his back under the pro of the boat, trying to rig up a spot for the anchor. He was currently being helped by Lex and Eric, although Eric's contributions had so far been dubious, to say the best. His injured neck was wrapped in bandages with Cody's blue and white bandana, which he rarely used, wrapped around that. Admittedly, that much cover would make a healthy person uncomfortable in this heat, but Eric was excelling his own standards of griping about it.

" Ahhh! Man, I'm sweating like a pig in this heat!" he'd grated for the third time in as many minutes, furiously wiping the perspiration from his high forehead, his reddish brown hair laying wet and dark on the fringes.

" Actually," replied Lex deadpan from where he was trying to help Jackson, under the boat, " pigs don't have sweat glands,".

" DO you have to correct **everything** I say?! God, it gets on my nerves!" he snorted back, as usual, fanning with his hat. " Is there anything I can be doin' other than sitting here on my assets or can I go take a nap?" he said crankily, " I'm getting a sunburn just sitting here." He stood up, sweat stains all over his blue tee shirt giving ample proof of the heat.

" Yes! Please go somewhere else and complain for a while!" came the uncharacteristically gruff response from Jackson, sliding out from under the hull, mopping seat from his on face with the edge of one of his black shirts. He struggled to his feet, then gave Lex a hand up. " Man, you've been moaning for an hour and other than handing a few screws and bolt to us, you've done nothing but bitch." He pulled his shirt off and wiped his face again, " I love you man, but you're being a royal pain today ."

Eric tried his best innocent expression; it failed to impress Jackson at all.

" I mean it," he continued, " I don't know what your beef is today but honestly, you've got the disposition of a hornet with hemoroids. Do somewhere and sting someone else for a while."

" Hornet with hemmoroids?" Lex mouthed softly to himself, obviously trying to picture such an unfortunate insect.

"Fine! Suit yourself." the skinny teen grumbled as he whirled to stalk stiffly off in the direction of the Tango.

" Where did you come up with that expression?" Lex inquired, shaking his head ruefully at the departing Eric's back. He rubbed his gritty hands on his orange and blue shorts while he awaited a reply from the irritated Jackson.

He shook his shirt off, then pulled it back on while replying," Oh, that's something my granddad used to say. He lived in Mississippi and he had a weird saying for every occasion."

Lex's face twisted thoughtfully for a moment, then he asked, " Isn't that who you got your cross medallion from?" he pointed at Jackson's cross, hanging limply from it's tether around his neck.

Cody pulled it slightly away from him, staring at it in fond remembrance of his grandfather before speaking, " Yeah, he gave it to me the last time I saw him before he died. It was a present for my thirteenth birthday. I was surprised he'd get one quite like this for me; he was hard line on anything religious usually, but when I asked about that he said that people my age had different ways of showing faith, not better, not worse, just different. He was good about not judging people, so was my dad. I try to be like that too." He propped against the side of the boat, staring out into the jungle absently as he finished.

Lex did the same for a minute, then asked, slightly nervously, " You didn't wear your cross for a couple of weeks after your , uh, ordeal… Why not?"

For an instant, Jackson bristled at the question, _Man, that's personal and none of your damned business!_ he thought, then dismissed that thought as soon as it had formed, repulsed by his own reaction. _Jackson, it's _Lex_, he cares about you; he's like the kid brother I never had and in some ways, he's as mature, maybe more than some of us!_ He looked at the young boy, trying to decide ho much of an answer to give before making his decision. Jackson stood swiftly, then , putting his habds on the side of the craft, propelled himself into it, sitting on the rough planking they'd put in for seating. He reached out , motioning for Lex. He gripped the proffered hands and pulled the eighty pound boy up.

After they'd gotten seated, Jackson began to earnestly speak to the child.

" I quit wearing it because I felt unworthy, at first. Lex, by now I know you've gotten just about the whole story of hat happened to us. I mean," he twisted slightly, before locking his aquamarine eyes with Lex's dark brown ones, "you understand that we were forced to have sex, kinky sex, with each other. Me, Mel, Abby and Eric," he swallowed nervously, Adam's apple bobbing up and down, his chest tense.

" Yeah, I know," he said, trying to keep his eyes on Jackson, " You were all drugged."

" Yeah. And you know I killed the captain . You're smart Lex, you have to realize that I could have hurt him bad enough to capture him instead of killing him, but I didn't. Part of it was seeing Eric go down, " he closed his eyes briefly as the image of Eric falling, blood spraying fro his mouth flickered through his mind for the millionth time, " but even more, I hated him for hat he did to us and for what he wanted to do to you."

The Latino boy slumped down, his cap falling to the deck as he replied:" I understand." He straightened up, a look of pride on his face, " But you stopped him. With help from the others, but it was mainly you. You kept him from making a slave out of me. From keeping me from becoming a toy for perverts like him, from years of being raped, tortured and probably being killed by the time I turned your age." By the time he finished the sentence, his voice had gone rough, gravelly and tears were staining his olive skinned cheeks.

They were also staining Cody Jackson's. He fought for calm as he spoke, " You realize that Eric and I are both bisexual and that Mel and I are involved too.. You understand what that means, don't you ?"

"Yeah. You have to admit, a threesome is not a normal thing to have, even if you seem to be the center and Mel and Eric , er, " he flushed crimson as he spoke, embarrassed , " I don't doubt the three of you love each other. It's unusual though."

"You have no idea, " Jackson said, a laugh in his voice even as he tensed again. He sat still for a time, then spoke simply, " Lex, just because Eric and I have had sex , it doesn't mean I'd ever touch you, or Eric would."

He did not get the reaction he expected at all.

" I knew it!" Lex said, jumping to his feet in sudden fury.

Jackson stood up, in terror at the strength of the boys reaction, worst possibilities racing in his head already.

"I know you two would never touch me! Do you not know me well enough to think I trust you?!"

Jackson was to stunned to reply.

" I trust you Cody!" he shouted, " You're almost like a big brother to me! You killed someone to keep me safe! Eric got hurt, nearly killed the same way, Mel too! Why would you think I'd even dream of one of you to touching me like that?! Just because you're both bisexual, it doesn't automatically mean you're both probable child molestors too! Do you think I'm that **fucking stupid?!" **And with that, it got even worse as Lex sat back don and began crying uncontrollably, sobs wrenching his small body.

Jackson started to reach out to touch the boy's shoulder when the shock of hearing Daley's voice behind him nearly made him fall out of the boat.

" What the hell's the matter with you?" the red head demanded angrily, holding a hand up in a commanding gesture. Jackson took it and pulled her into the boat with them. " I was scared to death! We hear Lex yelling clear across camp!" She sat by her sobbing stepbrother, putting her arms around him in a bid for comfort. " Shhh, it's all right . Jackson didn't mean to hurt your feeling Lex. Remember, we talked about this, you, me , Nathan and Mel." She pulled his face up and began drying his tears with her white shirt tail.

" I know," he said, his breath still catching as he forced the sobs to subside, "and I didn't mean to scare anyone. I'm sorry Jackson," he whimpered, sounding far younger than ten, " it's just that, I love you. I never thought you'd get scared to be around me because of being the way you are, you know…"

" Bisexual. It's just a word Lex." Daley said, pulling her, " None of think you or Eric would ever touch Lex Jackson, " she said, her own eyes meeting Jackson's pale, scared face, " but a few weeks back, when you guys got back, we did sit down and explain it to Lex. And," she met his gaze levelly, " we did discuss how he should never Lex anyone touch him in a sexual way. No one. But we specifically said we trusted you and Eric. Just like always. I didn't think this would ever come up to be honest." She grew quiet as the other five, who'd been standing there after walking up gathered.

Nathan spoke: " Yeah, I admit, the idea of undressing around you guys made me a little nervous at first, but I was being irrational." He leaned on the boat, his pumpkin colored shirt contrasting sharply with the pale wood. " Shoot, Eric and I have showered in the same room at Hartell for three years. I think I've even showered with you once or twice, when the team's showers were messed up , as usual. But, except for when Horny here," at this he pointed a long arm at Eric, who got an indignant look on his face at being singled out thusly, " keep offering " TOTO!!" a bone and when he grabbed my butt, it's been ok. Even that I can forgive, because of the drugs he was on."

"' So I grabbed your ass, shoot me." Eric drawled, nervous eyes belieing his overconfident sneer.

"

"Man, you literally left fingerprints, you grabbed so hard! And bruises."

" No way! I was half unconscious the whole three days!" he shot back in disbelief.

The curly haired teen simply tugged his red and blue shorts don and exposed his buittocks for all to see; " See the proof. I can honestly say you're a pain in my ass!" And to be fair, there was still a very faint bruise.

" You're turning me on with that cutey bootie!" Eric said salaciously , causing Nathan to nearly sprain his wrist, pulling his shorts backup .

Daley fought a guffaw as she turned back to the matter at hand.

" Lex, they have a right to be afraid. And we have to respect that."

Jackson sat beside him and hugged him, " I'm sorry for doubting you little buddy. Please forgive me." To his relief, the boy hugged back hard.

" I'm sorry too. I over reacted. But you and Eric don't even touch each other in public, but you kiss Mel all the time."

Jackson grinned wryly, " I wasn't sure how you'd react if me and Eric started with rampant pda's. Besides, Mel can out kiss him any day."

" That's a vicious lie, obviously spread by someone who knows me too well, uh, has a agenda of their own ." Eric snapped, crossing his arms and giving a patently overdone glare at Mel.

He got his shock of the day when Jackson jumped down, walked over and unabashedly took Eric in his arms, bent him over and gave him an enormous kiss in front of all of them. Then walked over and did the same to Mel.

" Whatta stud!" cooed Taylor, laughing at Eric's look, which comprised of equal parts discomfort and satisfaction.

" I'd rather find the pig, catch it and smooch it for an hour than kiss either of you guys, but, I'm honestly happy for you, three. " Nathan said with a laugh as Daley wrapped him in an embraced, then gave him a kiss."

" Hey, I'm glad everyone is free to be themselves, " Lex called out from where Taylor had helped him down, " but I'm too young still to be comfortable around orgies!"

With a massed burst of laughter, the tension dropped dramatically as life amongst the seven took a small step towards normalcy.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

**Old Pains, New Hopes**

**Day 59 near Midnight**

**He was running for his life in the dank hallways of the ruined Hotel Tango. Water was dripping from the innumerable holes in the ancient, moldering structure. He felt a cold drop hit the back of his head as he stopped to carefully peek around a corner, to see if his pursuer was close by. There was nothing nearby, no sounds of movement. He cautiously took off again, darting from one hall to the other.**

_**Funny, I don't remember it being anywhere near this huge, he thought .**_** He suddenly stumbled over a large object on the floor. Something suspiciously soft. And something human sized. He whipped his lighter out and struck it. A moan of pain escaped his compressed lips as he looked down and saw the dead body of Nathan McHugh laying there, eyes glazed over and a dried ring of blood around his mouth. He reached down and closed the teen's eyes, saying a silent prayer for his friend and simultaneously vowing vengeance. He took off, still being silent.**

**He rounded another corner and there in the floor were two bodies, those of Taylor Hagen and Daley Marin. Both had been decapitated. Aghast at the horrific sight, he spun and ran in the opposite direction. As before, it suddenly seemed that the cramped old base had grown tenfold in size. Then, he came at last to the narrow stairway . He bolted up the stairs and flung the rusted door open, his heart pounding in his chest. He slammed to a stop as a figure loomed in at the top, laughing.**

**There were two bodies laying atop each other, driven together by harpoon cruelly driven through both of them. Tears spangled his cheeks as he instantly recognized Melissa Wu and Eric McGorrill's fallen forms. The large figure as still laughing as the wind and rain increased in power. He suddenly noticed a smaller figure beside the large one. In fact, as the lightning flashed, he saw clearly Lex Marin, a huge hand throttling his small neck. As the lightning flashed again, he saw the face of the other person, face given a hellish yellow tint as the thunderbolts illuminated the face of Cody Jackson's worst nightmares, Captain Robert " Bob" Russell.**

" **He's mine now! Now and forever!" the hated voice roared in triumph.**

**Jackson awoke from the nightmare with a scream tore from the depths of his young soul, flinging his sleeping bags covers back furiously. He sat up , took a gasping breath and erupted into hysterical tears, the echoes of terror still crashing in his head like tidal bores. Seconds later, a sleepy eyed Mel and a obviously terrified Eric were sitting beside him, desperately trying to calm him down. **

" **Cody, what's wrong baby, " Mel pleadingly asked, her arm around one of his shaking shoulders as the tears flowed steadily, his entire body shuddering from the force of his incoherent cries.**

" **What is it Chief ? C'mon, we love you, we can't help if we don't know what's wrong. Talk to us , please?" he begged, sharing a concerned look with Melissa as he put his arm on Jackson's other shoulder.**

**Tears streaming, Cody looked up at the dark ceiling, face lit up by the full moonlight peeking in through the window of the ancient room. He took a shaking breath and asked in a shaky voice, " When will it end? When will I stop feeling guilty for not escaping with you guys before we were raped? Why do I still feel guilty for killing that **_**bastard?!**_" . He put his face in his hands, the crying slacking off now, the tension in his shoulders relaxing fractionally.

" It's not a sin to have a conscience Cody, " Mel said softly, running her hand over his neck in a soothing circular motion, " and you did all you could do at the time."

" And remember , we'd all be dead , except for Lex, if you hadn't stopped him permanently. There was no way to stop him, keep him trapped, and get off this island with that loon in tow too. And Lex would've been done a lot worse than us if you hadn't killed Russell." Eric said , his hands meeting Mel's on Jackson's neck. They both hugged up closer to him as Jackson sighed in resignation.

" I know it's all in my head, but I just can't help it. The talk we finally had with Lex helped, a lot. But, I just want to go home! I don't care if they stick me in Paso Robles or not! We've gotta try to get off this frickin' lump and get HOME. I miss Mom. I love having the two of you, but I want you there, not here. " he said forcefully, reaching out to wrap his long arms around them. He gently pushed their heads onto his shoulders, Mel to the right, Eric to the left. " Sleep by me. Both of you. I don't care anymore what anyone thinks. I need you here by me, both of you.

The other to looked at each other. Mel gave an almost invisible nod of assent to Eric's watching eyes.

Twenty minutes later, the three of them were asleep, Jackson in the middle, embraced by his loved ones.

***************************************************************

Day 60: Morning

After an uneasy night, Mel, Jackson and Eric had awoken early and were at the morning fire making breakfast for the group. As they went about it, a very excited Lex came bounding up to them, his black hair askew from sleep, but his dark eyes sparkling with anticipation for today as to be the test of the boat and a reluctant Jackson had given him permission to come with him, Mel and Nathan onto the open water. He was followed closely by Taylor and Daley, with a noticeably sleepy Nathan McHigh, who was yawning and stretching as he ambled up slowly.

" Lex," Daley said, a warning in her tone, " I don't care how fast you eat, we still have to actually get the boat to the water first. There's no sense in swallowing all that food in one gulp unless you've gotten strong enough to pull " Rosebud" by yourself," referring to their oddly named craft.

The decision and debate on what to name the ship had been a spur of the moment thing, sparked by Taylor, of all people. " All the boats Daddy has have big, fancy names. Ours deserves a name too!", she'd insisted. And so the process had started. There had been some rather odd suggestions along the way though.

"Nautilus" had been Lex's suggestion, until Mel had gently reminded his that that had been the name of a vessel known for going under the sea, not on it.

"Peaceful Warrior" had been her own suggestion, to the confused looks of all but Eric, who'd promptly accused her of being a " tree hugging eco fanatic, a dangerous one at that".

" The Love Tug" had been his less than shining name for it, until a scathing comment on what kind of tugs brought him love, issued by a maliciously smirking Taylor had shot him down.

All that could be said for her suggestion of " Island Princess" as that it as better than "Love Tug". It was dismissed as too commercial sounding.

" Survivor", Daley suggestion, had seemed like the winner, until by some strange coincidence, Jackson and Nathan offered up a truly odd name.

" Rosebud".

After the initial laughter had died down, they gave their reasons.

Nathan: " it was the name of Orson Welles sled in Citizen Kane guys. It's a classic movie. Everyone's heard of it, even people who've never seen it. That's the same reaction I want to see when we get home and people find out 7 kids from LA made a boat and floated away on it."

Jackson: " He's right. In the movie, Welles character never forgot Rosebud; it was a symbol of a time in his life he never forgot, just like we'll never forget our time here. Besides, the only other name I could think of that reflects our group properly would be one nobody would like.

" The Minnow". You know, like on Gilligan's Island. God knows it seems like we have the cast here, sometimes:

" Lex is the Professor, obviously, Eric Has to be Gilligan,". he ignored the flying bird, "I'd have to be the Skipper, Daley and Nathan are the Howells , Mel'd be Mary Ann and that leaves our own prima donna to be Ginger, " he finished, waving at the smiling Taylor. Who took a gracious bow.

Rosebud , it was.

As the work on the boat had drawn to a finish, the other really big task had loomed; making a path wide enough to go the hundred yards from the Tango to the shore. In long ago days, there had been a pier there, but a few moldering logs jutting up at high tide were all that was left. So they's picked out a somewhat difficult, (Eric had almost had a stroke at Lex's description ) trail and then proceeded to nearly kill themselves carving it out in the tropical heat.

As Nathan was quick to point out, even bad luck eventually runs out. The trip to the water would not be as difficult as moving the Heron to their old camp had been. Mainly because it was , except for the first 30 yards, all downhill. Jackson and he had made rollers and after five long, hard hours of straining by all , the Rosebud was now knee deep in water. The boat had been floating for fifteen minutes with no signs of leakage yet. They'd reached a consensus and decided to let it float for another 45 minutes, both to make certain of its seaworthiness and to recuperate from the work. Daley had had the foresight to bring some of their beach towel and Mel had packed some fruit, so they ere currently enjoying a repast under the trees near the sugar white beach. The waters were gleaming brightly in the afternoon sun, mild combers slowly lapping the sands. Even the seagulls seemed to be enjoying themselves as they flew slowly and gracefully through the pristine blue sky. There were just enough clouds to give comfort but not enough to hint at rain.

Cody Jackson sat up from his towel and put his bright yellow shirt back on. He looked at the Rosebud, still floating steadily, then looked around to locate the rest of the launch crew. They weren't far off; if fact, Nathan, Lex and Mel were all three gathered under the trees closest to the ship. With a rueful smile at their obvious impatience, he got to his feet, picked up his obligatory spear and walked over to join them. By the time he got there, Taylor, Daley and Eric had joined them as well.

" Well, let's see if we've got a boat or if we'll have to swim for LA after all," he said simply, wading out without a backwards glance to hop into the ship. After he go aboard, he reached out a helping hand, first to Lex, then for Mel while Nathan got up from the opposite side " Ok , we're all on board. It's your show now Mel," he said to the grinning young woman.

" Now I get a chance at power!" she said, letting out a evil cackle and rubbing her hands together theatrically, to the stunned looks of her three shipmates. "I'll make Cody look like a wimp and Daley a bad dream!"

"And then we'll throw your ass overboard ," Nathan pointed out with a chuckle, glad to see Mel in such high spirits.

" I never get to do _anything_," she said, a sad look on her face before she pushed at Nathan's shoulder, laughing gleefully.

Jackson and Lex exchanged looks of amusement before Cody spoke up again, " Ok, tell us what to do "Cap'n Wu", since we haven't sunk. Yet."

And with that, the sea trial began.

They put the small ship through her paces thoroughly. Mel had them go about a half mile out, the limit they'd set in their planning. They had practiced turns, tested the anchor Jackson and Lex had made, tried out both sails and in general had a blast playing out on the water. Mel had tried to impart the rudiments she knew of sailing to the three of them.. They had also checked out Lex's compass, which he and Eric had successfully integrated into the old watch. After a couple of hours, they had went in and picked up the three still on shore and all seven had went for a last half hour test, one to see if all seven would stress the ship. It showed no signs of failure, not matter how hard they tried.

As the sun went ever lower, the pulled the boat back ashore and tied it to the trees. As per agreement, they were going back to the Tango to get a good nights rest before leaving out on the marrow. To begin the island hopping that would hopefully lead to rescue and to home. The seven went to the Hotel Tango for their last night on this island.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

The Leave Taking

Day 61: Morning

As they had hoped and prayed, the sky was clear this morning. The seven of them had had a long night of sleep and rest for their departure today. Even now, it was hard to believe that in just under three weeks since moving to the Hotel Tango, seven young people, one of them only ten, could have made a sea worthy vessel out of the scraps of two hulks and bits and pieces of old buildings, but they had. They looked around the cluster of structures for the last time. They had left a new object sitting in the middle of the compound, something they had felt obligated to.

Jackson, Eric and Mel had made a tiny monument with the names of Jory Twist, Abby Fujimoto and Ian Milbauer on it, with the words "Never Forgotten" burned onto it. The seven of them were currently in a circle around it, observing a moment of silence. When a minute had passed, they went quietly to the beach to board "Rosebud", their quixotically named boat.

They carried the last of their supplies onto the boat before gathering up the ropes lashed to the trees as they released it. After they had settled into the boat, Jackson, Taylor, Daley, Eric and Nathan pushed it off with the oars they had crafted for a backup for the red and white parachute they'd converted into a sail. Lex was sitting by Mel, the chart he'd taken off the dead Captain Russell spread on the boy's lap, along with the watch mounted compass he and Eric had made. Mel was adjusting the sail with one hand and the rudder with the other while the other teen sat down onto the other two planks.

While their food, water and life jackets were on the main body of the boat, their other supplies were split between the two outboard pontoons that Jackson had added to the design. They were almost as long as the boat and could, in fact, be used as rough canoes like boats , if something happened to the main body. Each could probably hold three of the teens, with Lex able to fit in either as well. That had been the sole thing about the making of the boat that Jackson had been adamant about, even though it had nearly doubled the time it had made to make the boat. It was useful in another way as ell, as Eric had pointed out that the pontoon were just big enough for one person to lay in , albeit somewhat cramped. Two could lay in them at a time, giving the other five more room.

" Ok," Jackson said from his spot at the prow of the boat as they began to slowly tack into the wind, the beach already 100 yards off, " everybody get comfortable, we've got about 22 miles to go, as best Lex could figure, to get to the closest island of the five on Russell's. Or cluster of little islands I should say. It looks like three really close together little ones on this map."

" Any idea of how fast we're going Mel ?" asked Eric , gazing out towards the slowly shrinking island that had been their home for two months with a bittersweet expression.

" I really can't say, " she answered, shaking her head, black hair peeking out from her white canvas hat, Lex and I couldn't figure out how to judge it while we were on land. That's what he's doing now, with Jory's binoculars. They have a range finder on them, so he should be able to make a guess soon."

The boy looked up from where he sat with the binoculars in question dangling from their strap on his tanned neck. He took a look though the green Nikon binoculars, adjusting the viewfinder on set as he did so. Then he jotted down figures on a small notepad. He worked on the figures for a moment before speaking up, " My best guess is that we're going about 4 knots, that's five miles an hours. But we're with the wind and the waves are kind of against us. If we go to the closest island first and everything stays fairly close, we might actually make it there by this afternoon."

" That would be fine by me," Taylor said, holding her stomach, the waves are making me nauseous already", she complained. To be fair, she had warned them that she subsisted on Dramamine whenever her family had taken her to sea.

" We'll just have to hope for the best," was Daley's pragmatic statement as she stood up, unfurling a length of parachute material. She and Nathan put the four corners of the square up on the four pole holder, each of hle stood about five feet up. Within seconds, there was a tiny minis helter on the front two thirds of the boat. It was flat, so as to not interfere with the sail but large enough for two of the three rows of seats to be covered.

**************************************************************

They were all glad of Daley's foresight in setting the shelter up by mid day. By that point, the unease that had underscored the launching had finally given way to routine. Another moment of silence had been observed when the isle they had had some happen upon had faded out of sight.

Eric had summoned up his feeling by dropping trou and mooning said island, with a foghorn like toot at the time, from the wrong end, of course.

The others, once the stench had blown away, had tried to busy themselves with make work. Eric had " volunteered " to get on one of the pontoons to try it out for a nap. He'd caused no small amount of excitement by managing to come within a heartbeat of falling headlong into , according to the chart, five hundred feet deep water. Shaken up by his near disaster, he'd still not been so upset that he had trouble going ti sleep within fifteen minutes. Taylor, surprisingly, had went to lay in the other one. Happily, she'd required no rescue to go over the 10 inch distance to the pontoon .

Daley and Nathan, coached by Mel, were taking their three hour turn at the helm, the map and compass firmly clasped by Daley. Lex had decided to watch as Jackson, aided by Mel, took a stab at deep sea fishing, of sorts.

" Man, I hope I don't catch something that yanks my ass off the boat and into the deep blue, " Jackson joked nervously as he tossed the thirty foot line off the side of the boat, baited with a silvery sliver of metal, " I'd hate to pull a Jonah, " he said with a grin as Mel and Lex watched. He settled back, strong hands at the ready as he held onto his bamboo pole.

Mel took her hat off, letting the strong wind caress her face as she spoke , " We're doing good so far. There's not much cloud cover and no signs of sharks or anything dangerous. If everything goes smooth, we should see land in three or four hours."

" I'll be glad to have a latrine to go to instead of a "poopy pail" like Taylor calls it, " Lex quipped, grinning as he recalled Taylor's reaction when she'd asked where the bathroom was, only to have a gleefully snorting Eric hand her a decrepit old bucket.

" Thank God we realized we could set the shelter on it's side for a privacy screen." Mel said in fervent agreement.

" Even better, " Nathan added from the rudder, "I'm glad Jackson thought to gather some leaves for t.p. before we left. Thanks dude!" he said, springy hair waving in the salty air. Jackson waved a hand in wry acknowledgment.

Suddenly, Jackson's hand tightened as his fishing pole gave an almost invisible shudder, giving him the split seconds' warning that was all that kept him from being yanked off his seat. As it was, he let out a bark of pain as his shoulders suddenly felt as though they were being dislocated. Whatever he'd hooked, it was powerful!

He braced himself with his long, powerful legs against the side of the boat as he began to try to reel whatever it was in, his bamboo fishing pole straining , the crude reel he and Lex had cobbled together from ancient gears they had found in the Tango screeching.

" Get him Jackson!" Eric cried out from the pontoon, " I'm ready for supper!"

" Careful, you'll fall in , " warned Mel as Cody lurched forward against the titanic pull, " and we don't kno yet what you've got!"

Her words seemed to summon the animal to the surface. Thirteen feet away, a large shape broke the surface. It as at least four feet long and was bluish grey on top with a silvery pink side, and a foot and a half long rapier like nose told them what he'd caught.

"A swordfish!" Lex called out happily, " No onder it's pulling so hard; they can swim at sixty miles an hour." His dark eyes squinted in the sunlight as he admired the magnificent animal.

" Who cares how fast it is!" Eric rumbled happily, " I'm more worried about ho we'll cook it!"

Unfortunately, at that moment, the fish made a tremendous leap. Jackson braced mightily, but the line just wasn't intended for such stress. It broke with a resounding twang, causing Jackson to nearly flip over the shallow side of the boat. Only Mel's strong arms kept him from literally swimming with the fishes. " Thanks," he stuttered, trying to catch his balance, " I'd really not have dove in after that thing; I'd need a sword to fight it."

An hour and a half later, the excitement caused by the fish had died down. Mel, Jackson, Taylor and Eric were gathered at the rear of the Rosebud, the former two giving the latter their sailing lesson. Surprisingly, Eric seemed to be having no problem with the navigation part, while Taylor seemed to actually be better at the sail handling than Jackson himself, although she seemed hopeless at reading the compass right. Mel as trying to explain it to her for the fifth time when Lex called out from the prow:

" Land Ho! I see land up ahead! There!" the boy pointed at a smudge on the horizon, at least two miles away, his binoculars hanging off his sweaty neck.

Mel went back to take the binoculars from Lex and look for herself, putting a hand on the younger boy's shoulder as she confirmed it. " He's right! I see at least to of the little island we were looking for. We're almost there!"

Jackson immediately went into leader mode. " Mel, take the helm over! Guys, Daley, lets get to the pontoons with the oars and start rowing . Taylor, Lex , keep the water flowing; we'll get hot quick, " he said, looking up into the bright, nearly cloudless sky, " we've gotten this far, this fast , mainly by luck. We've got maybe three hours before night, let's be on the beach by then."

Actually, due to another stroke of good luck, they were able to ride the tide in, speeding them slighty and making the rowing far easier. It took to more hours, nut they landed on the beach with an hour of sunlight left. They ere on the largest of the three small isles. Standing on a huge boulder near the beach, Jackson and Nathan could see the to far smaller islets. One was so low that half of it probably would be underwater half of the time. The other one was larger, about a half mile long, but no more than a couple of hundred yards wide, according to the map at least. The one they were on was about a mile and a half long and half a mile wide. Eric came up and took the binoculars, gazing at the second largest island as Cody and Nathan were looking at the map to orient themselves. Both whirled around when Eric let out an incredulous gasp.

" Dude what's wrong ?" Nathan asked swiftly, " Did you see one of those things over there?"

"What is it Eric ?" Cody asked, alarmed by the stunned look on Eric's face.

_He's scared to death! And pale as a ghost! What the hell's wrong with him?!_

Eric McGorrill handed the binoculars to Jackson, his hands shaking as he did. " There was someone on the beach on the island…" he broke off, still looking stricken, like he couldn't believe his eyes."

" Jackson, whoever it is just went into the bushes!" declared Nathan, who had snatched the glasses from Jackson while he checked on the other teen.

"What's wrong Eric? you're shaking like a leaf." He started to inquire further when he saw a look on Eric's face, one like none he'd ever seen there before, not ever. A look of hopelessness, of defeat, and then, of hatred.

Eric roughly pushed Cody's hand off.

" You won't believe this, but I think I know who it was." he said , voice full of anger, looking at the grey rock they stood upon.

" And if it's who I think it is, then I should have never left the Hotel Tango."


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

**Familiar Face, New Troubles**

**Day 61 Evening**

**(Author's Note: The character of Mark Watson is my own name for an unaccredited on screen actor, who appeared in the flashback sequence of the season 2 episode REGRETS. This character had no lines, nothing was known about him other than he was a member of the student planning committee for the Palau trip. His physical appearance is what my character is based on. So it's 99.999% mine own and the rest is property of the creators of Flight 29 Down. I'll shut up and type now ****J)**

**Even three hours later, Eric had still not spoken a further word about who he thought he'd seen on the other island. No amount of persuasion from Jackson or Mel moved him, nor the pleas for sanity from Daley, Lex or Nathan. Taylor noticed that he kept glancing her way for some reason she couldn't fathom and it was beginning to get on her nerves. She finally managed to corner the disturbed young man as he was walking on the edge of the now darkened beach, a half moon giving enough light to navigate there, the light from the campfire glowing red and gold at the temporary camp a couple of hundred yards away.**

**Taylor had often been accused of being blunt; she certainly as feeling that way now. " Ok, care to tell me why you've been looking through me all night Eric, or do I have to slap some sense into you ?" she said, only half teasing. Seeing his shoulders slump even more as he trudged along the sand, she felt a twinge of pity for her friend.**_** And that's something I never thought I'd say about him, but Eric is**_ _my friend now. And I really want to help him, if I can. He was getting confident in a good way, around Melissa and Jackson so much, now, whatever is wrong has him acting like a jerk again, _she thought to herself. She had to halt suddenly as Eric unexpectedly turned to her and said:

" Ok, fine. You know the whole damn story anyways. Hell , that asshole is yet another one of your ex boyfriends." he spat venomously.

Taylor took a step back, confused, " Who are you talking about ?" she cried out , stupefied .

" Mark Fucking Watson, that's who!" he said, almost accusingly.

" Oh shit." was her succinct statement. Suddenly it all became clear.

Mark Watson was another Hartwell High student who had gone on the Palau retreat with them. He was on the planning committee for the trip. He was also the captain of the Hartwell baseball team, on the debate team and the swim team as well. He was smart, smart like Jackson or Lex type of smart. He was nice looking, well spoken and charming. He was nearly the perfect student and a poster boy for the all American teenager except for two things.

He was kind, easy going and generous , until something happened to get his hot temper started and then he'd fight. Anyone. And once he did start fighting, it usually ended with him having to be knocked or pulled off of whoever he was fighting because when the blows started being thrown, the kindly Mark that was usually there became an animal. He was also nearly an orphan, his grandfather was raising him as his parents had been killed in a auto accident. He and his grandfather were very close and very protective of each other. Doctor Luther Watson had been the schools history and humanities department chair for to decades . He was well liked by most of the students. Eric McGorrill had not been one of them. He'd actually failed Eric in his freshman history class. For cheating.

To be honest, Eric had been doing poorly all year in the course. Dr. Watson had let him to several extra projects to boost his grades. Eric had sought help from a younger, smarter person, young Lex Marin. He'd started off simply getting ideas for essays from the 9 year old, but Lex gave so much extra information when barely prompted, he'd wound up just paraphrasing it.

It would have worked out ok, except for the fact that the advanced placement class teacher for lex's group had taken ill unexpectedly and Dr. Watson had covered. He'd assigned the same project to Lex and Eric. When the results were practically identical, he had smelled a rat. Thus began Eric's feud Lex and Daley Marin. His feud with mark had began when Mark overheard Eric complaining loudly about how the "old bastard " had failed him for no reason. Mark's other flaw was his hatred of anything or anyone that threatened his grandfather, his only living relative. Mark had picked Eric up by the neck and slammed him into a row of lockers. Only Nathan McHugh has kept Eric from a beating, he'd calmed Mark down long enough for Eric to scurry away.

Eric had fumed for weeks afterwards. He'd gotten a chance for revenge when Mark had briefly dated Taylor Hagen. One of Taylor's professed loves was being taken out in luxury vehicles, the rarer the better. And for Mark's 16th birthday, his grandfather had given him the keys to his pride and joy, his Roll Royce Bentley, the most expensive possession he'd had, the result of a lifetime of savings and the insurance from when Mark's grandmother had perished in a fire . Mark had asked Taylor to go to the "Mistletoe Ball", the big winter season dance at Hartwell. They had pulled up in the black car, with its black interior. Unknown to them, Eric had caught wind and had bribed the underpaid parking attendant with a hundred dollars, a month's allowance, for five minutes of " taking pictures" of the car. When Mark went to open the door for Taylor, black shoe polish came off in his hands. Eric had liberally coated the car. Unfortunately for him, he had forgotten about the recently installed video cameras, which caught him. When the damning evidence was shown, it took all of four hours for Mark to find Eric and black his left eye and he'd been about to choke him to death when a half dozen people drug him off the battered boy.

Only literal begging by Eric's father and mother had kept him from being expelled. Doctor Watson had refused to press vandalism charges if the McGorrills would reciprocate by not pressing assault charges. Both of the boys were ordered to see the school psychologist for weekly counseling. They had not spoken a cordial word to one another in a year.

Taylor's mind left off its remembrances. " Are you sure ?"

" Oh yeah, can't forget the face of the first person to ever say he'd kill me and try to carry the threat out." Eric hissed. " Fuck! If that's really him and he finds out about me and Cody n' Mel, there's no telling what he'll say or do. And if he tries to fight Jackson…"

Taylor's eyes grew large in alarm. Mark and Jackson were almost the exact same size and build. Mark was scary when he was mad, but Jackson had proven just how far he'd go to protect the ones he cared about. This had the potential to become ugly . To be fair though, Taylor said: " I never knew mark to ever say anything about anyone's background. Don't forget, he's a quarter Hawaiian ."

" So he'll get along with Nathan , Daley and Lex." A little mentioned fact in their group was that not only Nathan and Lex were bi-racial, but Daley was as well. Mr. Marin, her dad was half Latin himself, hence his Latino last name. " That doesn't cover bisexuals." he added bitterly. He hugged himself in his white and blue button up as the wet air came in from the ocean. " I'm tired and depressed Tay. I'm goin' to bed." With that he tromped off to bed, leaving Taylor standing there, her hand in her red jacket pockets.

_I better tell the others who he thinks it is. Jackson is planning on checking that island out tomorrow anyway, to see if someone really is there. Poor Eric, he's afraid no one will stand up for him, even now._ Dejected by her own chain of thoughts, the blonde walked slowly toward the distant campfire, the noise from the waves soothing her nerves.

*************************************************************

Day 62 : Morning

The Rosebud was once again on the water but this time, her voyage taking all of a half hour. The other isle was barely a mile away, practically next door, by Pacific ocean standards, not even a steps away. It was a desolate place, a few dozen coconut trees , a ton of ferns, three hills and not much else. Forewarned by Taylor, Jackson had reluctantly left Eric behind and had taken Taylor, Mel and Nathan with him. Taylor and Nathan since they were on speaking terms with the mystery man, Mel for common sense. The boys finished rowing the boat up, hopping out to grab the hull, pulling it up on shore. The four of them lashed the boat to a pair of nearby trees and then began to cautiously probe around.

Jackson was walking in the lead, his spear firmly clenched in his hand. Nathan was similarly armed. Even the girls were armed, Taylor with Nathan's knife, Mel with Cody's . Jackson also had their battered but sharp machete in it's holster on his belt. He was feeling anxious. The little islet seemed almost too quiet. There were few insects buzzing around and he'd seen a grand total of one bird, flying high overhead in the cloudy morning sky. There was nothing stirring. Even the soft breeze that had been blowing on their way in had faded away.

Abruptly, Jackson stopped, noticing something in the sand. It was a unmistakably human footprints. From the looks of it, a size eleven or twelve. Right about where Eric had insisted someone was standing. He nudged Nathan, pointing at them.

" Looks like Eric wasn't imagining things, someone was here." he said simply, leaning on his spear as he looked at Nathan's suspicious face.

" Yeah, but how could it be Mark? The other plane took off ten minutes before we did." Nathan said skeptically.

" We don't know that it is Mark." Mel added reasonably, " It could be anyone.

"I'm more concerned that it could be friends of Russell's , " Jackson said, painful ghosts lingering in his aquamarine eyes, " that's why we made Lex stay behind." he reminded them. " Ok, let's fan out some. Me and Taylor ill go left, you two go right. Call out for anyone , but if someone answers, be damn sure you shout for US before you go up to them."

Fifteen minutes later, he felt as if they were spinning their wheels. Despite a hundred hails into the bushes, there was no response. Jackson was about to suggest to Taylor that they regroup and go into the dank sliver of a jungle as a group when something silver and tan whizzed by his head to smack into the tree beside him. His eyes narrowed as he shoved Taylor to the ground in case another arrow came their way.

" Stay where you are!" came a voice Jackson had never heard before. But Taylor had.

As she proved by screeching out: " Mark Allan Watson ! Put that thing don before you kill somebody!"

There was silence for a half minute. Then, faintly, Jackson heard someone slowly moving through the bushes about 25 yards away. He sat up cautiously, his spear in his white knuckled hands. Time seemed crawl as they waited, then at about 10 yards out, the voice commanded them again.

" Loose the spear and I'll drop the bow. Go on," he said insistently, " thro it away."

Jackson slung it thirty feet away. He did Not throw his knife, which he'd appropriated from Taylor away, nor the machete. Finally, he could see a face emerging from the intervening foliage. It was a teenage boy, around his own age and size. He looked vaguely familiar to Jackson but any doubt that Taylor knew him vanished as the other young man's face split into a broad smile as Taylor ran up to literally clasp him to her bosom.

" Hey sexy," Mark said, tears of joy in his eyes as he held the beautiful young woman tightly, spinning her around in a circle, then releasing her to take a better look at her. "How did you wind up here?!" he asked in wonder, not seeming to be able to believe his eyes.

" Our plane crashed in the big storm to months ago, when we left Guam." Jackson interjected form where he stood, his stance still one of caution.

" We were looking for you guys! Captain Harrington got a call from Captain Russell, but something was wrong, he could hear your pilot, but Russell didn't seem able to hear him."

_Better wait until later to tell him we're pretty sure Russell Intended to get lost, for reasons of his own, _Jackson thought , " We have a few ideas about what happened on our plane, but what happened to yours? Any where is everyone else? There were 12 of you, counting the teachers and the pilot."

" I'm it." the tall, brown haired teen said, instantly somber. " The airfield asked him to circle around and look for 29DWN. It was ok, until we hit a storm that seemed to come up from nowhere. Our plane took a hit from the storm that caught an engine on fire. The pilot lost half the fuel . He had to dump it or risk blowing us up. Then, the _other side _of the plane blew out a fuel line. We didn't have a choice, we had to ditch. Me, Captain Harrington, and the James brothers, Justin and John and Mrs. Rogow were the only one s to get to the raft before the plane exploded ."

" But where are the others." Taylor asked in dismay.

He sat heavily on the ground and sighed, " That's a long and ugly story."


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

The Other Side of The Story

Day 62 Noon

By midday, the trusty "Rosebud" had made two more trips across the narrow channel, ferrying the now expanded group. In light of new information, they had decided to:

A) Go to the smaller island for Mark had quite literally stumbled upon the cache Russell had hidden there,

B) Rest and recuperate for two days before taking off to the second island on their list,

And C) Leave as soon as possible, as Mark had told his story and shown them the rather impressive set of footprints he had discovered on the far side of the small island shortly after his arrival there. They were enormous versions of the little ones they had seen when they had encountered the Cloverfield parasite eeks ago. By Lex's best estimate, it probably came from a fifty foot tall " baby(!)" Cloverfield. Fortunately, the tracks were not fresh.

They had set up camp in a small clearing about a hundred feet inland, nestled between the sides of a ravine. So far, Eric and Mark had barely acknowledged the other's presence. After the bare essentials had been handled, Jackson had them all gather so that the new person could tell his tale.

Mark began:

" When we ditched, it was like a nightmare. There were fifteen, maybe twenty foot waves crashing down on us. Justin, John and I managed to pop the hatch while Mrs. Rogow helped Captain Harrington . He'd cut his face and neck pretty badly. I had gotten the raft and after I dove out, I inflated it. The James and the other two got out. Me and Justin were the only two really good swimmers and we were about to try to start helping the others out when the port side of the plane exploded. It knocked me out. Justin got me back in the raft just as the plane went under. No one else got out alive."

" We didn't have a clue as to where we were, where your plane was, nothing. John had grabbed a first aid kit from the plane and Mrs. R had the luck to have her backpack by her, with her snacks she kept incase her blood sugar dropped. That was it. I had my pocket knife and my water proof watch. John had a knife and the pilot had some tools, screwdrivers and stuff in his pants pockets where he'd been helping do some maintenance on the plane earlier. We were in the storm for two hours when the first wave knocked us over." Here, he had to stop, a devastated expression on his face. " That, " he continued in a husky voice, " that was when John got lost, the pilot too. It was all Mrs. Rogow and I could do to keep Justin from droning trying to find him. It took fifteen minutes, but we finally flipped the raft back over. By then, all we could do was lay there, we were so wiped out."

" Finally, the clouds began to break off , another wave hit us, but didn't capsize us like before. It knocked Mrs. Rogow and Justin into each other and hen he fell on her, she sprained her wrist. Perfect, right? Any how, we wound up drifting for three days on that raft , alone in the middle of the ocean. I thought we were going to dehydrate and die. We ere headed that way when we hit a reef and got stuck, just in time for another squall."

" The squall kept us alive that day. We wet don every scrap of clothes we had and wrung the water out of it to keep wet. And ten hours later, it didn't make a fucking bit of difference." He grew still, Taylor sitting beside him, her hand on his shoulder as he stared mordantly off into space.

" What happened?" Jackson asked, his sympathy for the ordeal plain in his question.

Mark took a deep breath and continued: " It was around midnight. Justin was awake, keeping an eye out for ships or planes. Mrs. R and I were asleep.

Justin woke u up because something was making a weird cooing noise near us."

Fear gripped Cody Jackson as he knew what was coming next.

" Out of the night, something, I don't know what it was, jumped right in there with us. Some kinda crab like thing." He shuddering memory before resuming. " It , it bit Justin and ripped Mrs. Rogow's face off." without a further word, the lanky, tall teen jumped to his feet and struggled a few yards off gagging at the memory before becoming violently nauseous.

He stood up moments later, back still turned, speaking with hate in his voice. " I tried to knock it off , but it just jumped back and jumped back at her. Finally, Justin and I both got out knives out and Justin dove in a cut it. It screeched and dove off the raft. Justin collapsed. I went to try to help him because one look at Mrs. R told me it was too late for her."

" Justin was having some kind of seizures by then. His face, arms and chest , you could see bruises spreading like wildfire. That thing had some kind of neurotoxin in it's bite. Justin, Justin just, Exploded." He went to his knees then, Nathan and Taylor walking over to help him if he got sick. He put his hand to his knees and spoke as if to the earth itself.

" I knew if I stuck around, I'd be next on the menu, so I left their bodies there. I took off knowing I was dead. I floated all night and half of the next day before I saw a smudge on the horizon. It was this island. I was lucky; the tide brought me close enough that just before dark, I was able to swim for it."

" And here I've been, all alone with no hope of rescue for two months. If I hadn't fallen into Aladdin's own cave, I'd already be dead."

" Aladdin's cave, tell the rest of them about it, " Jackson commanded gently, " you told me, Taylor and Nathan already."

" I wandered the island for a couple of days. I found a few shellfish and coconuts, but I was barely scraping by. I made a little shelter out of ferns, but it barely kept the wind out. I was wandering along about a quarter mile from here, when I literally fell in a hole. Through a trapdoor that led to two caves. The outer one had been broken into, but the inner one had a couple of padlocks on it. It took me all night, but I used my Swiss army knife to get them open. And got the shock of my life inside."

" What was in it?" Taylor said, somewhat excited now.

" It looked like someone had sent a survival fanatic everything they'd need to live through a nuclear war. There's bows and arrows, knives, first aid kits, hunting clothes, field rations. Camping supplies of all sorts. A pair of solar converters like the one you guys have, and it's a good thing too. I use it to charge the flash light and camp light batteries and to keep my laptop running too!" He managed a grin as he gave the good news.

" LAPTOP!" Lex gurgled in delightful surprise. " Oh man."

Daley exploded in laughter, " That kid's been having withdrawal from computers for months now."

" Is it really that full?" Nathan asked hopefully.

" We could definitely use more supplies . Of everything." Mel added.

Mark stood up, nodding his thanks to Nathan and Taylor as they helped him. He brushed his longish brown hair out of his green eyes as he asked them: " It's just over the next hill. Wanna go look. ? "

**********************************************************

"" Aladdin' Cave" indeed!" said an impressed Eric McGorrill twenty minutes later as the eight of them crowded into the crammed full cavern.

Mark had not been exaggerating. Indeed, he may have actually been conservative . By his own admission, there were several stack of crates he simply hadn't looked through, because he'd dug deeply enough to get the things he needed out already. He'd converted the far smaller front cave into a shelter, but it could easily hold four or five comfortably or even the whole group if needed. Cody had asked Daley to start an inventory, with Lex all but chomping at the bit to get to the to crates marked electronics. He'd spent the first five minutes checking out the solar charger, the same model as their own, and especially the high end Dell laptop, sitting in it's protective cover. He'd already skimmed through the list Mark had made, in an attempt for fight his boredom here.

The girls and Lex were in the other cave while the males sat in camo folding chairs in the front cave. Jackson looked around at the unusually large amount of lamps Mark had scattered around the room. There at least 10 of them. Mark had explained it simply.

" Before the attack, I wasn't afraid of the dark." had been his dirt simple answer. And after that, he'd announced his need to go for a walk and had left Jackson and the others alone for the first time all day. Jackson cocked an eyebrow at Nathan, who took the silent cue graciously, rising up from the chair and going into the other cave without a word.

Jackson leaned back in the chair and clasped his hands together, his chin resting on them as he looked at his beloved friend. Eric had been far more subdued than usual since Mark had been added to their group, which was understandable, in light of what Taylor and Nathan had told him of the two boys troubled history together. Jackson spoke quietly:

"Are you going to be ok with him around Eric ? He seems decent so far."

"And you've never had him beat the crap out of you before either Cody!" Eric snapped back, slapping a hand on the mesh chair arm. " I'll admit it," he said grudgingly, "he's had just as rough a time as we have. Maybe even a little worse in some ways since he was stranded here all alone, but I still can't stand him." He flinched slightly at the look of disapproval Jackson gave him. Then, he got mad, " Dammit, don't judge me Jackson! I admit it, I was an asshole towards him and Doctor Watson too. I did cheat and I did ruin the paint job on the Rolls and I messed up his date with Taylor. I deserved to get my ass whipped, but it took Nate, Ian and four other people to pull that psycho off me. I don't like him and I don't trust him as far as I could throw the fuckin' boat! Satisfied?" he collapsed back into the chair, sullenly glaring at the other teen.

_I hate this damn __**drama!**__ Why, oh why can't it ever be easy . Anytime we've ever had another person show up, it always goes straight into the toilet. Two times with Abby and now with Mark. _Jackson sighed wearily before speaking again. " Eric, I don't expect you two to make up just like that, " he snapped his fingers, " but we need each other. Whatever else he may be, he's lost far from home, just like we are. He's willing and able to help and we can't exactly turn him away."

" I would!" came the hot retort.

Jackson said patiently, " I know better than that. You were scared of me and you still went out to look for me. Nathan may have threatened you, but he didn't physically force you to go."

" It's different man! I felt bad because I set you up, so I could be the main man in camp; I pulled a prank on him and he went all Devil's Rejects on me." He leaned back, taking his hat off. He sat like that for a moment and looked back at Jackson, his hazel eyes looking tired and unaccountably old.

" I'm scared of him. He hurt me and I'm just plain afraid of him. I'm no fighter Jackson. Not physically."

" I would have died two different times if you hadn't tried to fight Bob Russell." Jackson pointed out.

" I expected to die both times!" he rebuked him angrily, " You don't expect to get choked out over putting shoe polish on a car!"

Jackson stood up. " I admit he overreacted, badly. But my temper is a lot like that too Eric."

" It's not the same! You killed to save people, to save us. He really would've killed me if the other guys hadn't been there." he stood as well, pleading with Jackson. " I'm not saying we should leave him here. Bad as I hate him, he's not Bob Russell. He's got mental problems, but he's no monster. And that's about the best I can say for him. I'll keep away from him. I'll even work with him, but there's no way I'll ever trust him." And with that, Eric went to join the others.

" Just fuckin' perfect." Jackson said to himself as he made up his mind on the spot to have a heart to heart talk with Mark.

************************************************************

Jackson pulled himself up out of the narrow opening to the storage caves. _Hmm, looks like Mark made a new door out of some of the wooden crates. Maybe he's good at carpentry? Be nice to have someone other than me or Lex who knows anything about actually making something. Nathan's a hard worker and he's gotta creative streak in him, but he's not very mechanically inclined and poor Eric may actually be worse!_ At the thought of Eric, his expression hardened fractionally. He really couldn't blame Mark for belting Eric over mouthing off over his grandfather and HE would've nailed him over messing up a multiple thousand dollar paint job. But it really was starting to sound like Mark may have some major anger management issues. He looked up from the hatchway as he hear Mark walking up near him.

Jackson wasted no time. " We need to have a talk."

He told the story of the survivors of Flight 29 Down to Mark as they walked side by side up the beach. He told about the early days, the leadership being given to him, almost against his own will, of nearly getting into a fight with Nathan. He told about how Eric had found his private tape and had nearly gotten him to run away from the group. He told about the events back home that had him wanted by the law when and if they ever returned. He told of Daley's assuming the lead, of Abby's return and lastly, of the entire Hotel Tango, (or as Eric called it the Hotel Havoc saga) events. He did not leave out the Subversion issue either. And he'd finished by explaining what his, Mel and Eric's relationship really was.

To say Mark was looking shell shocked at the end would have been a masterpiece of understatement.

And then, Jackson told him in no uncertain terms what would happen if while Mark as with them if he ever touched any of them, let alone Eric.

" I swore after killing Russell I'd never kill again except to save another life." Pale blue eyes met green ones as Cody Jackson laid his ultimatum down." If you try to hurt anyone like that, I'll put you down. If you touch Eric like that again, make him afraid he'll die like that, I'll treat it just like I would if you put a gun in my on face and it didn't kill me."

" I would have to fight you. I could not and would not live with the guilt of letting you go and you doing it again. And I'd stop you as hard as I had to."

Mark had walked silently with him for another ten minutes after that before finally replying. " I need to talk to Eric one on one Jackson."

"Eric doesn't trust you enough to do that."

" Jackson, " he said, an odd timber in his surprisingly deep voice, " I swear, hurting Eric is the last thing I'd do."

" You've hurt him before. I never knew why he was so scared of fighting before but I do now. I'm not taking a chance on you hurting him."

Mark visibly restrained his temper, " I understand that you love him and I believe he probably feels the same way towards you, but what I need to say to him is for his ears alone. You can stay in sight, but I really need to talk to him in private."

Despite himself and his better judgment, Jackson said, " Ok, I'll ask him, but if he says he's not ready, then let it lie for now. Deal?"

Mark agreed. Jackson had him wait by the tethered boat while he went to talk to Eric.

_This outta be real interesting, _Jackson thought, already dreading Eric's probable response to Mark wanting to talk to him one on one. _I better find some earplug in one of those crates before I tell him!_


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Commitments

Day 62: Mid afternoon

_I knew this was going to be difficult, But I didn't think it would be __**this**__ bad, _Jackson thought as Eric ranted on.

" I don't know what the hell that jerks wantin' to talk to me about anyways! I hate his face and he feels the same about me. This is just a fuckin' waste of time Cody, " and he would undoubtedly have continued on in this fashion if Jackson hadn't cut him off.

" Enough! I don't need you two fighting all the time Eric. Will you please at least listen to him, for he, " he said. An unusual tone of pleading in his voice.

Eric snorted slightly, then bowed to the inevitable . If Jackson was willing to try to wheedle with him, then it was obviously important to him. He surrendered with his usual lack of grace. "Fuck it, I'll do it."

***************************************************************

A few minutes later, Jackson, reinforced by Nathan, stood atop a lo dune, about forty feet form where Mark and Eric were warily facing one another. It sort of reminded Jackson of two dogs facing off, the tension was so patently high. Nathan asked him " Are you sure this is a good idea ? There's some serious bad blood between those two."

Jackson folded his arms, hooking his thumbs un the arms of his black mesh shirt. He shook his blond and brown haired head in the affirmative, rocking back and forth on the heels of his size twelve Timberlands, " Yeah, I am. They've gotta grow up, both of them. Eric can be a self centered snot and Mark seems to be a hot headed ass with a tendency to have temper tantrums. Tough shit, it's survival time here. We can't afford to be divided, not when we never know what we'll be facing next." He glanced at the mahogany skinned teen beside him, obviously expecting a reply.

" You're right, " the wild maned Nathan assented, " it was tough when me, you and Daley nearly got into it, nearly impossible when Abby came back to us again. I'd just as soon not have a third split between us." The two of them grew quiet as Mark began to talk to an obviously nervous Eric.

Mark irritably brushed his recalcitrant brown hair out of his green eyes where the wind had blown it before beginning to speak. H looked over at where Eric was watching him, obviously ready to get it over with. Just for irritation, Mark waited a few more seconds before finally talking.

" Look, I know you and I have had some very serious issues in the past. And to be honest, I'm sure you like me even less n' I like you."

" Whoa, that's news." Eric drawled sarcastically, shifting his weight from side to side. He had to intention of making this easy for _this _guy.

" You're determined to make this hard for me, aren't you ?" Mark said, a faint ghost of a smile on his face. He exhaled softly, " I really can't blame you in a way, " he conceded, coking his head slightly. " I really went overboard after the car deal."

" You could say that, " Eric said between clenched teeth, " You could also say that Hitler has a bad boy too." he said dryly.

" Damn, you really don't like me, do you?" Mark said with a caustic laugh, leaning over against the edge of Rosebud, then hopping up to sit on the edge.

" I'm gonna assume that was a rhetorical question, since we both kno the answer." Eric said in a mild tone that didn't convince anyone . Is entire body language shrieked of tension. He paced back and forth as he aited for the larger teen to continue.

Mark dangled his legs idly from the boat, then he pointed a finger almost accusingly at Eric: " You just don't get why you pissed me off so bad, do you?"

Eric said nothing, is expression said it for him.

Mark went on: " Dude, you have a family, parents and all. All I have is my Gramps. He spent a lot of money on that car and he trusted me to keep it safe. And you, pissed off at him, decided to ruin my date with Taylor, who the whole damn school knew you liked, to get back at him."

Eric flushed red, " And I guess the fact that a eek before you slammed me into a locker head first didn't have anything to do with it. Yeah, " he shot back, " I cheated! I got caught and got academic probation for all of last year because of it. And I talked crap about your Grandfather." He shrugged, seeming to struggle internally before confessing, " I can see why you'd want to punch me out , he was in the right to punish me. But you nearly put me in the hospital over the car. I shouldn't have done it, but you would have killed me if the others hadn't stopped you! " He had his hands in front of him now, balled into fists.

On the nearby hill, Jackson's on hands tightened on his omnipresent spear.

Mark hopped off the boat, tense. He seemed to be ready to get in Eric's face, then , unexpectedly, his broad shoulders slumped. He looked at Eric and seemed either unable or unwilling to meet Eric's eyes. " I shouldn't have attacked you. Either time. No matter what you did, you never were a physical threat to me." Eric bristled, certain of more insults before Mark held up a hand, begging a moment.

" What I mean is you never offered to hit or touch me. You didn't try to fight me in a way I could handle. And I don't fight the way you were fighting, with the pranks." he turned in a slow circle before going on, " All I can say now is I'm sorry Eric. I can't go back in time to fix it, but it on't happen again. I've seen my friends die in front of me here. I've done nothing but think, all day every day since I got to this rock. I'd go back and change things if I could, but I can't. All I can do is try to make things at least tolerable between us."

" Jackson told me about everything that happened. All of it."

Eric felt like puking at that. 'All?" he rasped.

"All. Including the relationships in the group. And , he warned of the consequences if I stay with my old ways. He really cares about you man."

" I know." was the reply.

"Eric, can we try to get along?", he asked plaintively. " Jackson's right, we need each other to a degree where our egos have to be put under control. I don't expect your friendship or forgiveness, but can we agree to at least treat one another like people instead of enemies, for now at least?" And then he did what he'd promised. He held out a hand in a hope for acceptance.

_I'm gonna kill Cody for putting me in this situation! I hate this, I don't trust him._Eric thought. But, then he forced himself to be rational. _But if I don't, Mel and Cody both'll be pissed at me and so ill the others. It's against my better judgment but …_

He took the proffered hand, shook it and away without another word, leaving a bemused looking Mark standing there. " Well, what do you think ?" Nathan asked a scowling Jackson.

" I think, " he said, sighing, " we're in for interesting times."

" Isn't that a Chinese curse?, " Nathan asked with a wry grin.

Jackson responded without a grin, " It's a curse in general,". With that, he strode off , obviously intent on catching Eric.

"Not much of an exit line." Nathan said aloud. The teen turned to go back to the caves.

On the beach, Mark watched the various leavetakings. After they were out of sight, he casually brushed his hand, the one Eric had shook, off on his jeans with a grimace. He looked up just in time to see Nathan fade from sight before smiling.

A cold sort of smile, one that would have looked not out of place on a shark.

If anyone had been close enough to hear, they would undoubtedly wondered just what he was laughing so heartily about.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!

TO those who asked " Where's Russell's brother?" He's lurking about. The pace is abot to dramatically pick up in about 2 more chapters! Be afraid!!!!!


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Putting the Pieces in Place

Day 62 Late afternoon

It took Jackson nearly an hour to finally get a disgruntled Eric to talk to him. They were currently taking to of ten crates to the boat, filled with various supplies. Both young men were sweating profusely in the tropical humidity and it was about time for a break. And a talk.

Eric sat down on the sand, his hat in his hand . He wiped at his high forehead with his free hand as Jackson sat don across from him. He looked over at him, this young man who seemed determined to get his to better himself somehow and a question that he had wanted to ask for a month now finally came forth.

" Why me ?"

Cody looked uncertain as to just what he meant. " Excuse me?"

" Why are you still determined to have a relationship with me? We're nothing alike." Eric said flatly. " I'm a self centered jerk. I manipulate people, a lot of times just for the hell of it. I lie. I actually get a kick outta stealing, sometimes. I hate being wrong and I really hate admitting it. I'm nothing' like you, so again: Why do you care about me Cody?" he sat there, the hard look on his face showing his determination. He propped on his outspread hands and waited for an answer.

Jackson looked carefully at one of the two people he cared the most on this Earth for. To be honest, other than his mother, Eric and Mel _were_ the most important people to him, with Lex Marin probably coming in fourth. He looked for some sign that this was a joke or a test of some sort from Eric, but the usual twinkle was absent from the fox featured teen's hazel eyes.

" Because I do. I can't explain it, other than to say it's definitely not the drugs talking and hasn't been for weeks."

Eric spoke up: " I need a answer, man. A real one. I deserve it."

" I don't know what you want me to say Eric. I love you." Jackson said, flushing slightly. " We've saved each others lives, even when we would've been safer running. You've never given me any reason to regret falling for you." He sat back in a matching pose to Eric's. " What's going on?"

Who promptly sat up. " Cody, I'm afraid when I do screw up, and we both now I will, count on it, that I'll be all alone. That you'll choose Mel and I'll be there, used up, with no one who knows our history willing to give me a chance." Suddenly, a shadow fell over both of them.

As if summoned by Eric's words, Melissa Wu walked up from where she'd been sitting on the ground behind the boat. She sat on her knees between them and spoke to them both.

"Eric's feeling the exact same way I feel Cody," she said in a level voice. " Our threesome has run it's course. There's only three options left."

Fear gripped Jackson's heart as he asked the other part of his soul the question: " What're they Mel."

She had a sweet sad smile on her face as she reached over and touched his cheek, then did the same to Eric, to his mild surprise. She turned her head from one to the other as she spoke feelingly to them, giving her view of their future.

" One, we could stumble one like we've been doing and someone will get hurt and the other two will always have some guilt,"

" Two, we could try going out with each other in shift. I'd probably get Daley to help plan them, since it would all be nice and predictable, " she said, some asperity showing now,

"Or we could do this: I could quit pretending I'm not attracted to Eric in a sexual way to spare your feelings Cody and I could go back to loving you for things other than sex. I care the same way about you both." To their amazement, she was openly eeping and laughing at the same time.

" Mel…, I never, I mean, I always thought you ere so pretty, but I though you thought I was "Jackson's mistake", " Eric stumbled lamely, " I never guessed,"

" That I might be physically attracted to you." She finished for him, shaking her head, raven tresses flowing freely down her green blouse, " It was a shock to me too. But not as much of a shock as when I realize just how me and Jackson have stopped talking and just had sex. I want emotional and physical love from you two. Eric, "she spoke sharply, " we'll never abandon one another. We care too much now to do that. And Jackson, quit agonizing over every romantic decision; Eric and I care about each other, you don't have to play peacekeeper all the time with us."

The two men looked at one another. Eric' s eyebrows went up in a sort of gesture of submission, Cody returned the look.

" Well, " Eric said in a haughty, offended voice, " I guess I know who'll be wearing the pants in this relationship!" A lopsided smile lit up his face as he looked expectantly at Cody.

" Yeah, she's sitting right in front of us." Jackson said, a smile born of amused affection on his own strong face, the breeze tousling his light brown hair.

Twins kisses on her cheeks told Mel which option had been chosen.

As the three lovers lay happily on the sand together, a silent form watched them from the nearby jungle. A tall, brown haired young man shook his head in amusement at their antics. But then, as quick as the look of enjoyment appeared, a harsh frown took its place. He turned and walked away, every step stiff with suppressed emotions.

*******************************************************

" I smell a rat." Taylor said .

" What're you babbling about now ? " Daley asked from here she was sitting on the cool floor of the storage cavern. She had her red haird pulled back into a ponytail, that Nathan was occasionally tugging at, whenever her attention was diverted. Like now. " Will you quit ?" she muttered, slapping at his darting hand, her irritation undermined by the obvious affection in her strong contralto voice. Turning her attention back to Taylor, who was ominously tapping her foot as she glared at the love birds, she sighed, " What now?"

Taylor stood up, her checked blouse billowing as she rose, " I smell a rat. Or some other kind of "woodland creature" in here. It stinks!" She wrinkled her pert nose, sniffing the air in a matter Daley found somewhat reminiscent of a bloodhound on the prowl. " I'm getting out of this hole for a few minutes before it gets dark outside." She unleashed a commanding finger at Lex, who was enjoying a fe minutes of playing Fate on the laptop, "Hey Pee Wee, wanta keep me company for a little walk before dark?"

Lex looked up warily at Taylor, trying to gauge the mood she was in. He rather enjoyed being around the older girl when she was in one of her hyper moods, but when she was depressed, it was no fun at all. Fortunately, he'd been around her long enough no to be able to tell she was merely restless. Besides, the computer was almost out of power anyways. " Sure." he said, rising up from where he'd been sitting cross legged for nearly and hour. " I could use a walk."

Nathan stretched his long arms from here he sat, looking through yet another of the interminable boxes of supplies. While a lot of the things they had found were useful, what they'd do with an entire box of paper cup lids escaped him at the moment. He was bored, to be honest. Giving Daley a nudge, he suggested, " Want to go out for a few minutes ourselves? I'm starting to feel like amole in its cave in here."

" I told you I smelt something!" Taylor cawed at him gleefully.

" If it's rotten beaver, I think I'm lookin' at the source, " he retorted with a malicious grin, chucking as Lex snorted with amusement.

The ten year old staggered as Taylor shoved him, " You keep out of this! This conversation is meant for minds older, more mature, more…"

" Insane than mine ?" he finished for her, dodging her nimble hands as she tried to shove him again. The four left , insults flying like the proverbial bats out of hell.

In moments the cave was empty of life. But only for a moment. Mark furtively dove into the cave as soon as the others were out of sight. In less than two minutes, he reappeared, carrying a small bundle, rapped in cloth. He looked around. Seeing no one close, he scrambled into the bramble.

Time passed. The sunset was beautiful, but it seemed to pass into night in a instant. The seven from 29DN sat by their customary nightly campfire. They had invited Mark to join them, but he'd pleaded off, claiming fatigue.

" That dude ha been alone for too long." was Nathan's take on it. " He's not used to having a crowd around anymore.

" He's just being a " Eric started to say, quieting at a cough from Mel.

" Eric, you to are never going to get along if you keep insisting that he has a bad motive for every move he makes." she chided him.

" Never assume malice for what stupidity can explain." was his enigmatic response. Six set of eyes stared at him. He cleared his throat, " Him, not me!"

" Hopeless." Nathan said in resignation, rolling his chocolate brown eyes. He snuggled up closer to Daley, who put an arm around his shoulders companionably.

They sat quietly, star gazing for a while, commenting on the things they had found that could help them on their next island hop, the morning after next. The talking continued for a half hour before Jackson gently commanded them to go to the cave and get a good night's rest.

Mark Watson had trudged in the rapidly dimming light to the high point on the tiny islet. He got the radio out of it's cover and set it up. He tried each of the ten frequencies he'd been told to check daily, finally getting a response on the last one. It as the first time in a fortnight there had been a reply. He spent 15 minutes explaining what his situation as to the voices on the other end.

" And they've made a boat?" a deep voice asked in patent disbelief.

" Yeah, and the thing is , they've got Bob's map too. I'm sure they're going to show up on one or the other of the islands in just a few days. They plan on using the radio from the old sea plane he crashed here last year to get help. You wouldn't belive the stuff they brought, even a fuckin' generator."

" Damn, if we get the boat from them, we can get there first. These piss ant field radios a junk. They don't have the range to get to Guam. We're only two miles away and I can barely hear you." The voice went quiet for a fe minutes. Mark was beginning to get nervous when a second voice, one well knon to not just him but to the other Hartwell students came on. It spoke to him, giving him very explicit directions and threats for the consquences of failure.

" Don't worry so much Gramps. Hell, the kid's in one piece and the girls are worth their weight in gold. The guys too, if you go for that sorta stuff."

" Do as you're told! Leave them alone until we get there."

The first voice broke back in: " Do your job and you can do whatever you want to this Eric kid, but the Marin boy better not get hurt. The Jackson kid, on the other hand, is Mine."

" He killed my brother. I'm gonna make him regret that."

**************************************************************

Twenty minutes later, Mark caught up with the others just as they were going in for the night.

" Have a good walk?" Taylor asked sweetly.

" Oh, it was ok. Just needed to reach out for guidance, I guess." was Mark's reply. He politely held the top open so the others could go in.

The evil smile flickered across his face as Eric went in last.

_Payback is a bitch._he thought as he went in as well.


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

**Surprises**

**Day 63 Morning**

**The eight of them were just about ready to head to the ubiquitous Rosebud. They had loaded all of supplies except the food and water and that , plus their backpacks and sleeping bags were it. They were on the hillside by the cavern entrance. Mark was looking about, obviously somewhat anxious. In the spirit of camaraderie that he was trying to show, Jackson walked up to the equally tall teen, his camo backpack bouncing off his shoulders. He stopped next to him.**

" **Going to miss this place ?" he asked with a mild smile. He was met with a snort of derision.**

" **Not likely. I hope this island only shows up in my dreams from here on out. Hopefully, we'll all have something fresh and new to look forwards to once we hit the beach," he said with a lopsided grin.**

**Not for the first time, Jackson felt that the other teen's words sounded right, but that he had a different meaning to them. **_**That's enough of that. You've been listening to Eric for too long; Mark's a oddball, sure enough, but he's not that bad of a guy.**_** " Well, is everyone ready ?" he said, turning and addressing the entire group. Taylor immediately spoke up.**

" **I can't find my perfume or my body wash! Oh , wait, they're back at Daddy's mansion," she said with a zany chortle. She subsided hen she received not a single laugh. " Uh, never mind…" she finished lamely.**

" **Does anyone else have anything to say ?" he asked, hands on his hips, an irritated look on his face. No one answered. " Then let's go."**

**They came up to the edge of the beach. It seemed like a picturesque scene. The gulls were flying overhead, making low passes over the wave tops in search of food. The water was a scintillating cerulean blue, light sparkling off it like a huge jewel. Out of the corner of his eyes, Jackson noticed Mark stopping, apparently struggling with something in his shoe hen he heard crashing noises all around them from the nearby jungle.**

" **Circle up everybody! It may be those damned bugs again!" he ordered instantly, but what came out of the woods next was an even bigger surprise than a whole herd of the parasites could possible have been. Four armed men sprang out, two with pistols. One with a double barreled shotgun, the other with as looked very much like an Uzi. **

" **Down on the sand! NOW!!!" roared the one with the shotgun, a short middle aged Oriental looking man in camo, wearing a brilliant yellow bandana around his neck. He pointed the shotgun right at Nathan's head, steadily advancing on the group. His three henchmen did the same , encircling the youths. " And drop the fucking spears and knives. If one of you little fucks so much as coughs , you'll bleed."**

" **Ok kid, get over to the side, " the one with the Uzi growled, ina harsh Australian accent, jerking his weapon at Mark, who got up off the sand. He walked over by him and then, to the horror of the rest, patted the tallish thiry year old on the shoulder before turning around to glare at the other seven youths. " Good work Dingo."**

**Jackson erupted , " You fucking know these people?!" he said in outrage.**

**He started to say more but sheer shock stopped him. Out of the jungle strode a sixty year old man, tall, bronze skinned, with salt and pepper colored hair. Dressed in a white sirt and sturdy chino pants, he gripped at a cane he'd been forced to use since hurting his left leg in his last parachute jump in the 101st**** Airborne . At least, that's what Dr. Watson had always told his history classes. To the disbelief of the others, he calmly hugged Mark, then gave a contemptuous look at the captive group.**

" **Well, at least the boy is in one piece. And Jackson there was always a decent student, Nathan as well. Oh, and there's your charmingly brainless ex girlfriend. Hello Taylor." he said, disdain in his cultured voice. " And the McGorrill brat. Pity young Fujimoto didn't make it." He sighed.**

" **I'd have liked to have a round of Subversion with her myself, the poor beautiful creature." he said, ignoring the mortified gasp from Melissa at that. " Aren't you going to come out and see our guests Richard," he said in a loud voice, looking at the jungle diagonally across from the bulk of the group. For a moment, silence reigned, then, the unmistakable sounds of a large individual coming through the brambles could be heard. Huge hands parted the leaves and a large form walked out into the daylight.**

**He was wearing a faded blue coverall, the type mechanics worldwide wore. He had a vicious looking machete in the waistband and a pistol holstered there as well. The tall, balding man stood around 6'2" and probably went around 260 pounds. He was smoking a cheap cigar in is broad , peasant featured mouth. He looked like he hadn't shaved in a week, at least. He ambled up to the group and waved at two of them, who helped Jackson to his feet, an expression of sheer terror on his face as they walked him over to meet the man.**

**Jackson's brain seemed to stop, the breath froze in his lungs like liquid helium. He could not more have stopped his next words than the earth could have stopped in its tracks; " I killed you! You can't be here."**

**Huge hands reached out and clasped his cheeks in a viselike grip, " No, " he said almost calmly, " You killed my younger twin brother, Bob. I'm Rich."**

" **I'm your new owner." He hit Jackson so hard and so fast, he didn't have time to even think about ducking.**

**Cody Jackson's world faded to black.**


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Explanations

Day 63 Mid Morning

Pain. Dull, throbbing pain. The sort that makes you see green flashes in front of your eyes and every second of consciousness an experience in agony. That was what Cody Jackson felt as he fought the urge to go back into oblivion and fought to open his eyes. He swiftly became aware of several reasons **not** to particularly open his eyes:

The unmistakable sensation of being bare assed naked for starters. Just for starters, mind you.. The equally unmistakable feeling of being bound by coarse ropes at his hands and feet was definitely adding to the dread. The thing he dreaded most though happened when a huge hand literally pulled him up to his feet by the hair, the pain making him cry out as well as open his eyes to behold his new self proclaimed "owner", Richard Russell, who gave a blood chilling smile at him as he roughly held him up.

" Wakey wakey little man, " he rasped in his deep bass voice, black eyes locked onto Jackson's blue ones, " It's time for a talk with you and the rest of my new toys. " He shoved Jackson over to the deck of the Rosebud, where all of the other members of Club 29 Down were sitting. All save Lex were stripped and bound as he was. Lex 's hands were bound, but he seemed unharmed otherwise. Eric looked terrified, Mel furious, Nathan and Daley petrified and Taylor looked on the verge of complete catatonia, her face pale and slack. They sat huddled together as the huge man spoke to them, a odd blend of charisma and evil in his every word.

" Ok guys n gals, I'm going to explain the little situation that you're in to you. Now, please don't interrupt me or ask any questions until I'm done, " he paused for a moment, then waggled a grubby forefinger at them, " or there will be severe consequences. And possibly broken bones." he added , almost as an afterthought. Needless to say, that served to heighten the tension and ensure attention as well. The balding man went on:

"First, there are three reasons I'm not gonna simply put a bullet in your heads. One is that since you kids seem so good at shipbuilding, I'm going to use your talents to make another one, like the very one we're standing on. All me n my crew had were a couple of four man rafts and they're not meant for anything but emergencies. And that leads us to the second reason. Me , the good Doctor," he gestured at the beach where Doctor Watson stood by his grandson Mark, an enigmatic smile on his face, a malevolent one on Mark's, "and my brother have a ton of goods stashed on a island about fifteen miles from here that we can use you brats to help move. Plus, the big island, where Bob's seaplane is, got trashed by the monsoons that hit last month. I figure I may need some slave labor to get the plane out from the cavern it's in and I'd rather not risk any of my crew."

" You're all heart Rich." quipped the Australian identified as "Dingo", from where he leaned against the boat, idly flipping a razor sharp pearl handled switchblade.

Russell smiled, showing his yellowing teeth in a tusky grin before continuing: " And the last reason I'm willing to let you live, for now at least, is the Doc and I have a batch of a new variant of Subversion e want to try out. It's called Perversion and if you think Subversion is hot, wait until you try this! One good dose and you'd be wanting to bang an eighty year old granny or you pet pooch!" He laughed heartily, joined in by the crusty crew. After the laughter subsided, he put his meaty hands on his hips and looked at Eric, who flinched , expecting another violent outburst.

" Mark and the Doc here say they have a few issues with you. I promised Marko that you'd be his personal slave, to do with all he sees fit, " he smirked at the panic stricken teen's expression of dismay, " that is, except kill you. I need you able to help with the work during the day, but at night or on breaks, you're all his." He turned his gimlet stare on Jackson's battered face next.

" I can't say the idea of killing Bob had never crossed my mind. He was a sick, sadistic piece of crap. He lied to me and stole from me constantly. Hell, I'd have never become a smuggler or a slaver if he hadn't gotten me involved in some of his schemes that backfired. He was a bum and him being dead is not the worst thing that ever happened to me. But he was still my brother." And with that said, he swiftly drew a leg back and …

Laughed in the face of Jackson, ho had tried to cover up only to find the madman laughing at him. " Thought I'd got you, didn't you punk ?" He sneered at Jackson, " Don't worry, when I finally get rid of you, I promise it'll be from something worse than my boot in your face. I'm going to see just what it takes to make you forget about this little streak of morality that let you decide to execute my brother. Oh yes, " he hissed, pointing at a somber faced Mark Watson, " my godson over there told me what your friends told him, about how you HAD to kill him, that you weren't safe with him alive. Didn't keep you from killin' him anyways, did it ?" he snarled savagely.

" Well Mister judge, Jury and Executioner, I'm gonna make you the best male sex slave to ever draw breath. I'm going to take your dignity, your morality, your loved ones and then, when you think there's nothing left to take, I'll take your life, but before I do, I'm going to give you one last thing to think about." He walked over and to the rage of the entire group, picked Lex Marin, the only still clothed one up by the neck and drug him to the front of the boat.

He looked at Jackson, but addressed the whole group.

" If one of you fucks up or backtalks, Junior here goes a day without food. If one of you tries to escape or fights one of us, after we beat you half to death, he'll go three days with nothing. If you do it again, you're through. Game over. Except for you, pretty boy, " he said to Jackson.

" If you fuck up in the slightest, one of three things will happen. First, your Chink girlfriend, she'll have to fuck every man here in front of you. Second, your boyfriend there, I'll go old school pirate on him; one hundred lashes. Lastly, if you really piss me off, I'll do something I actually don't want to."

He flung Lex down harshly. He lay still, crying, on the deck.

" Junior there is a nice, good lookin' kid. Some of the people, and I use the term loosely, I deal with would dearly **love** to get a hold of something like him. He's worth a small fortune. I'd hate to have to sell him for a cut rate, as used goods, but, that's up to you." He looked at Jackson as if expecting him to say something, but at that moment, Jackson was quite simply incapable of a coherent sentence.

" Make me mad, seriously screw up, take a single action to get these others to try to escape or resist and I swear, I'll take you and him, chain you two together and give you both a blast of Perversion. And after it's over, I'll take the kid myself and let all of you watch, after I kill you, of course."

Every nerve in Cody John Jackson's body seemed coated with artic frost at the hideous declaration of intent from Richard Russell. Simultaneous urges conflicted in his mind, to shout denial, to run, to vomit and strongest of all, to simply shut down. His head seemed to fill with a ringing white noise as he struggled to comprehend the nightmarish possibilities facing him.

_He HAS to know I'd kill myself before I did that to Lex! He just can't be that crazy! And if he thinks Daley wouldn't have something to say or do about it…_

His thoughts proved prophetic as Daley Marin screamed a raucous protest.

" LEAVE MY BROTHER ALONE YOU SICK BASTARD!" the red haired young woman raged, " He's just a ten year old kid! Why the Fuck do you people want to do something like that to him?! Punish any of us, but leave him alone, he's just a child." In a habit formed from a lifetime of being taught to respect her teachers and in now obviously misguided trust in a man who'd once been a favorite teacher of hers, she called to Dr. Watson, who was impassively watching, " Doctor Watson, you know this isn't just wrong, it's fucking evil. Are you just going to sit by and let this man do this? Are you just going to let him have Lex RAPED by Jackson?! Dammit, you ate supper at our house! You called Lex you favorite student!" she had tears streaming don her pale face as she pleaded for help, " Help us!"

A furious Russell strode forward and dre back a hand to smite the hysterical woman but a cough from the elder Watson stated his wrath, at least temporarily. Russell stepped back, relaxing fractionally a the older man walked up to the boat, cane in hand and spoke to Daley.

" My dear, believe it or not, I truly don't want Lex harmed, but that's up to how you and your friends behave. Eric is the only one here I have any ill will towards, " he said, a smile on his face as the teen in question shivered visibly, despite the 90 plus degree heat. " But, I actually am the junior partner here. I may have found these islands and the plants that the drugs are cultivated from. However, it as the Russell twins who helped me acquire, er, funding for it, and my , um, other past times." He looked unaccountably abashed at that, as if he'd nearly revealed a secret.

Which as confirmed by Russell, who hooted with joy at the distinguished man's discomfort. " Yeah, the Doc's other "past times", which include Subversion and eleven to thirteen year old Asian girls playin' hide the pickle with him!" He guffawed mightily at the other man.

" Be that as it may, " he said hurriedly, obviously trying to forestall Russell from bedeviling him further, which only made the other man laugh harder, " e need the assistance of you children. Your, uhm, intrepid little craft will be a help and as long as you behave, you won't be molested. Well, " he said at the look of disbelief on Daley's face, " not _excessively _molested." He tolidly ignored the booming laughter coming from Russell.

Daley shivered with fury and fear both as the monstrous man addressed her.

" Look kid, I'm not quite as bad as my brother was." He chuckled at the look that statement got him from the captive audience. " I'm not, " he insisted," if I as, Jackson and Eric here would both be dead already, Melissa too. Yeah, I know exactly who did what in your big fight. You ere all anxious to spill your guts to Mark, weren't they Mark?"

" Seemed to have guilty little minds all right," the lout interjected from his viewpoint by the tree line.

" Good thing it was your turn to watch over the supply cave here." Russell said gloatingly, "It it had been any of us others, they'd have known something was up. Anyway, like I was sayin', I'm not Bob. The black kid, Red, Blondie and Little Lex didn't do anything to me or my brother. So, you're relatively safe. I ll even let you have your clothes back after I collar you guys. We had to strip search you for our safety. If you're sunburned, you won't work as well. I'm even willing to give Melissa probation, if everyone else behaves, but you two, " he pointed at Jackson and Eric, " No way."

" Collars?" asked Taylor.

" Collars. As in shock collars. I understand the three of them had them on before, but yeah. They'll give you one hell of a jolt, if I press the trigger."

He looked back at Jackson and Eric. " Eric, he said, " Mark gets your controller. It'll be fun watching what he does to you. My godson's got a creative streak in him!" He turned his attention to Jackson. " You, you don't make a move by yourself. You work and I'll feed you and that's all. Behave and I won't hurt your friends. Deal?"

Jackson answered with an barely audiable voice: " Yeah."

The behemoth pulled Jackson over to him by the hair of the head. He placed Jackson in front of him on his knees. To the dismay and disgust of the others, he promptly unzipped his pants and pulled out an enormous erection.

" Let's seal the deal by you suckin' me off , here and now, in front of your boyfriend, girlfriend and whole damn little tribe."

Tears threatened at the corners of Jackson's eyes as Russell gripped his head, firmly guiding it to him. Hampered by bonds forged from love far more than by the coarse ropes, he opened his mouth and enveloped the red, enormous penis.

_Now what will we do? _he thought as his public humiliation began.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

The High Cost of Living

Day 63 Mid Morning

"All of you brats enjoying the show ?" Russell said sarcastically as he slid Jackson's head ever harder onto his gargantuan penis, to the accumulated shock of the onlookers. The sadist noticed Lex looking away and barked at him fiercely, " You! You fuckin' well better watch this or I'll take a damn belt to your spoiled little ass too. Your "leader" here's sucking my dick to keep your little ass safe, so fucking watch!" Against his will, the ten year old faced the atrocious actions going on in front of him, wishing with all his heart he was a thousand miles away. He was far from the only one with such a thought in his or her head.

Melissa Wu had passed into a strange realm past fear, past anger, practically devoid of all emotions save one, the strongest one of all, love. It was her love for Cody that held her tongue still, keeping her from begging the pirate to take her life rather than see Jackson tortured in this fashion again. Love that also made her finally realize that she, Cody and Eric's fate had, for better or worse, become firmly and inextricably bound together as her feelings towards Eric had finally begun to show, now to have their promise destroyed like a spring blossom by a blizzard's wrath. All that kept her from simply shutting down as the love of those two special young men. She braced herself mentally and focused her attention back on Jackson's ordeal. He was subjecting himself to this degradation to keep a loved one safe; she'd be damned if she dishonored his bravery with an outburst that could only make things worse.

Of them all, only Eric McGorrill was actually managing to largely ignore what Jackson was doing, not because he didn't bitterly feel for his lover, but because he was virtually petrified at the idea of Mark Watson having the same power over him as Russell did Jackson. The two of them hated one another with a white hot passion. But to make it worse, Eric knew, deep down, that in any type of fight, he would be even more outclassed by Mark than Jackson would be by Russell, and that didn't even begin to include the other pirates with them or Doctor Watson. A small portion of Eric's attention had been focused on them as Jackson continued his forced oral sex on Russell. He'd hoped desperately for any signs of disgust on the ruffians faces, but, far from that, the Australian and a tallish thirty something white guy were actually laughing and even taking bets on how long Russell could last! His hands trembled behind him as he tried desperately to think of anything to do, any plans of escape, nut his normally quick mind was a blank.

Mercifully, the ordeal quite literally came to a climax as the red faced Russell howled in pleasure, his pendulous balls slapping Jackson's cheeks as the middle aged man cried out " Oh fuck yeah! Oh shit! Swallow it you little punk!' he demanded, gagging Jackson as he spewed hot seed into his abused throat. Jackson was nearly knocked down by Russell's thrusting hips colliding into his face and chest. He barely managed to swallow the vile fluids, then his handsome face involuntarily grimaced as the putrid pirate withdrew his semi rigid member, smiling a he wiped it on Jackson's silent lips. He roughly shoved Jackson over, a contemptuous look on his face as he did. He quickly zipped his pants and addressed the captives again.

"See. That's not even a hundredth of what I plan to do to my pet bitch there. You guys still look up to him, even with the taste of my dick still in his oh so willing mouth? With my cum in his belly and on his lips?" He would have continued tormenting Jackson without doubt if a voice hadn't called out from the waters. As they looked, another boat, this one a canoe, pulled up into the shallows, an enormous man, even larger than Russell in it.

"Ahoy there Boss!", the large man called out, " Am I too late for da party?" he asked in a bizarre accent, unfamiliar to all save one of the 29 Downers. And that one person looked at the boat sharply, trying to see the man, but the angle of the boats and the light reflecting from the water was defeating him so far. The boat made a scuffing noise as it bottomed and the man hopped out, pulling it ashore seemingly without effort. He walked up to the shore. The angle as finally right and Cody Jackson felt his world swirl again as a man he'd never met before but who he Knew walked up to the Rosebud's prow.

" How's it going Little Jay?" Russell snorted in amusement as the Samoan hulk grinned broadly at the collection of captives. " What took you so long?"

The six and a half foot titan shook his head in mock sorrow, " The generator, she decided to go dead on me again. I gave her a round of percussive maintenance, she still dead as a doorknob. So, I came here to see what my ol' fishin' buddy caught in his net now. Looks like a likely catch you done got Richie ." he . He was, fortunately, unaware of the hole Jackson was staring into him.

_I've seen that face on Big J's office all at the church a hundred times! That's his youngest brother, I know it is! _The surreal situation had him rambling to himself. _Funny, Big J never mentioned his brother much, now I see why! Damn, one's a preacher, the other a slaver. Makes me wonder just what their parents did for a living. _Jackson flinched as Russell jabbed an arm in his direction and spoke to the misnamed Little J.

" You missed getting to see me and this little fucker put on a peep show! Man, he sucks dick better'n both my ex wives and almost as bad as yours!"

Nathan McHugh's eyebrows nearly levitated off his head at _**that**_. Daley actually had to fight a hysterical giggle, quieting down at a frantic nudge from Lex.

" You dirty bastard, " Little J shot back, "don't tell me you got a hold of my old lady too! Damn, seems like I as the only one she didn't have sex with. No wonder I love test drivin' the slaves so much." He walked over to where the Watson duo was standing , twin looks of superiority on their faces. " What up Doc ?", he said, playfully shoving at Mark, who stepped back, a barely concealed distaste at the familiarity crossing his face.

His grandfather didn't bother to hide his dislike, " I've asked you repeatedly not to use that tired expression Jamal."

" And I've asked you not to call me by my name, especially not in front of slaves." the tanned titan growled back, eyes crinkling in satisfaction as the Watson's both backed away slightly. He turned his attention back to Russell, asking, " Ok, since I'm here, who're we taking to the camp on the big isle ? And please tell me Dingo and Potter, " he indicated the tallest man, the middle aged one by Rosebud, " ain't going with this trip. They fight worse than a married couple."

" Fuck you, you damned abo!" Dingo retorted irritably.

" I don't bottom for anybody, white trash, especially not one's whose privates wouldn't look outta place on a fuckin' skeeter." He sneered as Dingo tightened up stiffly, " You bow up to me, I'll do the Samoan Drop on you 'til your guts fall out." he warned genially.

Potter merely rolled his eyes. Apparently, he wasn't much for talking.

" I'll make up my mind in a minute, " Russell rumbled, rolling his bulk over the side of the boat to the sand. " Did you bring the collars?"

" In the boat," the islander replied, gesturing at the canoe.

" Good enough. We'll collar them, then decide who goes where. I think I may let you watch the golden goose for me though." Russell pointed at Lex.

" Oh, you said you had a little one here." Little Jay said, " Yeah, I guess I'll watch him, otherwise, the Doc may decide sugar water can be as good as wine." He snickered as the Doctor protested vehemently.

" I'd never touch a little boy and you know that, you odious creature!"

" Maybe, " Little J said grudgingly, " but you'd damn sure bust a nut all over Little orphan Annie, or Strawberry Shortcake, Dora the Explorer, or any other underage girl," The whole pirate group cackled at the red faced doctor.

" All right, let's do this." Russell broke in quietly, " I got things to do, a slave to train."

**************************************************************

The captives were split into two groups, with the Watson's having a great deal of influence over the decision. Eric, Jackson, Lex and Taylor were to be kept on the island they were on, the others would be taken to the somewhat larger island across the small bay. Mark, Little J, the so far silent Potter and Richard Russell would be staying here to supervise the construction of a second boat. The other three would be put to work for the next few days with Doctor Watson, Dingo and Sakai, the shotgun wielding Japanese man and Mac Hale, the oldest and frailest looking of the pirate bunch. They would be helping gather the plants for the production of Subversion and Perversion.

It was that group which was currently sailing off in Rosebud towards the other island. They had been hurried along with threats galore from Russell as well as an unexpectedly worsening sky. The clouds, scarce earlier, had rapidly given rise to an overcast sky in the space of an hour. Lightning flashed ominously in the far off darkness, the waves swelling as the wind rose to at least twenty five miles an hour. Russell had ordered them to the cave in light of the oncoming storm.

" Oh well, at least we shouldn't have any problems coming up with ways to kill time," he'd leered at Jackson, his spittle spraying into the unflinching face.

After they'd walked up the now familiar path to the cavern, Taylor had nearly gotten physically ill. The thoughts of enforced sex with the men her terrified her, the thought of having them watch her have sex with Jackson or Eric was actually worse. She stumbled, shoved roughly by behind by Potter, who had pointed his controller at her in a silent warning. She felt a strong pair of arms enfold her from behind, which gently pulled her to her feet. She gave a start as Mark helped her up.

" Are you ok ?" he asked politely.

" DO I Look OK?!" she lashed out, " Why would I be Ok in this situation!"

To her surprise, he put a finger to his lips and tried to quiet her, furtively looking at Potter and for Russell. " Quiet down! He really would fuck you up if he thinks you're disobeying him!" He pulled her along after him, an impassive Potter following. " Damn, I had actually hoped he'd let you go with Gramps! He thinks you're dumb as a rock, but pretty. This bastard is likely to kill you just to scare Eric or Jackson."

" Like you'd care if he killed either of them." she hissed back.

" I'd do a goddamn back flip if he killed Eric and we both know it. I don't have anything against Jackson, not really. But they're unimportant." he looked at her as if trying to figure out if her anger as real or feigned. " Tay, I really do care about you. You know that, right?"

In a flash of insight, it all became clear to Taylor._ I have been so stupid! He didn't attack Eric over the car, he attacked him over me! He as always a jealous jerk, I had to keep him from fighting with every guy I even looked at ; that's why I dumped him. _Fear gripped her tightly as the caveat of the situation became clear as well. _If he's obsessed enough with me to try to kill Eric then, then God knows what he'll do to him now! Or me, for that matter , when he realizes I think he's out of his freaking mind!_

" All right, everyone in." came Russell's voice as they entered the tiny clearing with the entrance, interrupting the flow of Taylor Hagen's thoughts.

He held the door open and the group went in.

For the next two hours, the prisoners were kept busy rearranging the larger cavern, carving out minimal sleeping room for them. Taylor and Lex were inflating a pair of full size air mattresses while Jackson and Eric stacked boxes and crates as high as the low ceiling would allow. Russell had dug a lock out of the seemingly endless crates and had connected it to the outer door. Obviously , the captives would be locked in. After the mats were inflated, he asked Little J to take Lex into the other room and, to Lex's shock, was told to let him play on the computer or otherwise occupy himself ..

" I'm about to get to some recreation in here for a while," he said as he closed the door . He, Potter and Mark were left in Jackson and an ashen faced Eric. Russell wasted no time on pleasantries. He began to divest himself of his coverall, speaking to the silent Potter as he did.

" Keep that controller and your pistol close by , incase one of my "friends" here gets brave." the look on his broad face showing how unlikely he thought that possibility was. By now, he as clad only in a rancid pair of boxer, the dingy white materials best days clearly long past. He looked at Mark and inquired: " Well, what're you plans for yours?"

Mark stood there with his arms folded, his left knuckle pressed under his chin as he gazed at Eric in deep though for a moment. He confessed, " I really don't know, I almost never thought about doing anything except simply breaking his scrawny neck." He laughed at the other boy's pale face at that statement. Then he looked at Taylor for a second before saying, " I do think that Taylor here needs to see how the boy who wanted to get in her pants so damn bad looks with a couple of dicks up his ass at the same time though." He grinned at Russell, who had a matching smile of pure evil. He took Taylor arm and firmly guided her to a crate across from the air mattress closest to Eric and Jackson. She sat down and he cupped her chin, pulling in up so he could look into her troubled green eyes with his own. " Taylor, don't worry, I'm not really bisexual. I'm not about to put my dick into him, not when I want to be with you. I'm gonna let Rich there fuck the little bastard, but there's just no way in hell I'm not having him do a few other thing for me first." He turned his attention back to Russell . " Are we giving them some juice or not Richie ?"

The older man looked thoughtfully at the two teens, visibly weighing his options. He let out a breath in an almost resigned fashion, " Yeah, I guess we better. Especially for what you have in mind. Be a pity if it took all night because they couldn't keep it up. Harry, keep me covered while I give these faggots a jolt of joy juice."

Despite the nightmarish situation they were in, Jackson couldn't help a ironic though._ I can't believe I'm fixing to be raped my Subverted lover_, _Mark Watson and Russell, in front of Taylor, while a pirate named Harry Potter holds a gun on me! _he tensed as Russell approached him, a syringe full of Subversion having been produced from his cast off coverall.

" Hold your arm out and remember; fuck up and I'll have you butt fucking Lex five minutes later ." Jackson complied, his stomach twisting in revulsion as the needle broke his skin. Half of the shot went in. A half forgotten surge of ecstasy seemed to flow through his body as the drugs effects filled him. To his disgust, but not to his surprise, his penis as fully erect by the time Eric had received his shot, a rock hard seven inches long and nearly four inch around dark red rod jutting into the air. By the time Russell lumbered back to the front of the cave, Eric's own phallus was rampant, although a third less thick than Jackson's , it was an inch longer, at least.

Mark's eyes were wide. " I hate to admit it, but I'm actually impressed! I figured you'd be hung like a squirrel McGorrill." he said, in one of his typically left handed comments. " What do you think Taylor?" he asked the blonde, who seemed to have forgotten how to breath.

_If you knew me better, you wouldn't ask. _she thought to herself.

" Taylor? Hello?" the obnoxious teen prodded her arm, obviously expecting an answer.

She stammered a reply, " Uh, they're both bigger than I thought." her face went crimson as she noticed Eric looking everywhere But at her.

"Oh, I think I can still give them some competition, "' Mark drawled, standing up and starting to strip, " and I won't need any damn drugs, just knowing you're watching will be good enough to keep ME up." The six foot teen peeled his tight blue shirt off with the casual grace of an athlete, proudly exposing an admittedly trim and fit body. He lightly brushed a hand over a nearly perfect six pack, grinning at Eric. " See what some exercise can do for you candyass?" he teased, kicking his shoes off and stripping his socks as well as he spoke . " Got to admit, Jackson there's in pretty good shape, " he commented, unbuckling his belt before pulling his pants off, revealing a tight pair of blue boxer briefs, a huge bulge at the front straining the fabric, " Jackson, you should've went out for track or the swim team, you've got the build for it." he added with a smirk as he whipped his last item of clothes off, his own erection now proudly revealed for all to see.

Eric gulped. Jackson actually uttered a soft " Whoa." Taylor's jaw threatened to drop.

Mark's erection was every inch of a foot long. It made Russell's ten inch monster look weak. And it was as much thicker than Russell's as it was longer. His testicles , tight and firm, looked like small coconuts. He smiled and asked Taylor, " See anything you like?"

_See plenty I'd scream and run from!_ she thought. " That's impressive." she said to Mark, her shock plain in her voice. _Just keep it away from me and I'll be happy!_

Russell was very comfortably masturbating himself while Mark got ready. " Marko, why don't we take turns, so your girlfriend there can get a good look at the action without being distracted by too much, too soon. Besides, I'd like to see what you have the little guy there do first anyway." He looked at Mark expectantly as the teen walked menacingly up to Eric. Mark nodded his assent as his powerful hands shot out and pulled Eric up by his throat.

To Eric's surprise, he didn't start choking him. He merely released him, looking dead into his eyes. Mark took a half step back before speaking.

" I want you to put on a good show for Taylor, you little bastard, " he snarled, slapping the side of Eric's head harshly, " understand?" he said.

Eric shook his head, trying to clear the stars before answering just as Mark drew his hand back again, " Yeah, I understand." And then the breath whooshed out of his as Mark's left hand hit his stomach in a tremendous uppercut, sending him sprawling to the floor, clutching in pain at his middle.

"I don't want a fucking attitude from the start!" Mark's face went red as he ranted, " I want "Yes Sir or No Sir " from you from here on out. Or better yet, " he amended, a look of supreme self confidence on his face, " Yes master or no Master would be even better. Now, you've got exactly three seconds to get your ass up off the floor or I'll have Harry give you about 30,000 volts, " he ordered, pointing at a stone faced Harry Potter, watching impassively from by the door.

Still rubbing at his injured stomach, Eric painfully climbed to his feet. Only the Subversion in his system kept him able to move, for the drug had already begun turning the pain into pleasure, making him hornier than ever._ And that's the problem, _he thought desperately, _if Mark keeps pounding me while I'm on this shit, I'll become a fuckin' masochist! And that's probably exactly what he has in his twisted mind._ Mark waited a few seconds before asking again, " I want a good show, understand?"

" Yes Master," Eric responded, barely managing to keep from biting the words off.

Satisfied, Mark walked behind him, poking and prodding at his body. It was bad enough when Mark jabbed a finger at his shoulders, even worse when he put a surprisingly soft hand on Eric's flat stomach and murmured " Pitiful.", embarrassing as hell hen he reached out and squeezed his ass cheeks with his large fingers, going. " Soft as a girls." but when he playfully enclosed Eric's aching erection in his hands and began firmly stroking it, Eric couldn't help but let out a whimper of suppressed lust as the soft touches had nearly driven him wild as the Subversion took control of his erotic triggers and responses. He bucked his hips in a subconscious effort for relief, causing Mark to yank his hands away violently. He slapped Eric's cock , sending conflicting feelings of pain and pleasure throughout Eric's body.

" Calm down little guy!" he said in a mockingly sweet tone, " I promise, you'll get to nut. After you earn it, of course." He walked around in front of Eric and ordered, "Stick out your tongue."

Eric did so. Mark looked at it and snorted, " That damn thing has caused you a lot of grief, wagging all the time. I outta cut it off, but I have a better use for it. First thing's first though. Put it back in for a second." Eric complied. To his immense unease, Mark got so close to his, their erections were actually touching. " Let's see how good you are at kissing. He cupped Eric's head in his hands and leaned in, his tongue penetrating Erics lips a split second before their lips met. Eric stood there uncertainly, not knowing what response to make. " Do it," Mark insisted, pulling back for a moment, then locking their lips again, one hand now on the back of Eric's head, the other slapping hard at Eric's ass as they kissed. Against his will, Eric felt turned on by the touching, even the impacts on his ass starting to feel good. He hated himself for it as he started Frenching Mark as fervently as Mark was him. His toes threatened to leave the ground as Mark right hand, which had been slapping his ass now started pinching it instead. Finally, Mark pulled away, reaching up to wipe at his lips, a bemused expression on his face.

" Not bad. See, that wasn't too horrible. If your teeth had been clean, I'd have actually went for more." He looked over his shoulder as Taylor, " He's a good kisser Tay, you should've tried it."

She was silent.

Mark turned his attention back to Eric. " Hmm, Taylor's not too impressed with guys kissing apparently. Let's take it up a notch then. Let's give your lying tongue some other exercise." He touched Eric's shoulders, rotating them to where Eric and he were side by side relative to Taylor. After confirming that she had an unobstructed view, Mark gracefully bent over and touched his toes, smirking at Taylor. " Ok, I know you're no Vegan like Abby was Eric, but let's try some well tossed salad. Get that big nose of yours in there and start eating. And play with my balls while you do it."

For a fraction of a second, Eric started to refuse, but the thought of the consequences stopped him. _I can't risk it. That psycho Russell really would do it; he'd make Cody fuck Lex and then, no matter what happened, I'd lose Cody forever and if it happened because Cody was protecting me, Mel' d never forgive me and I won't lose her either._

Hampered by love, for the same reasons Cody Jackson had been forced to comply, Eric Jeremy McGorrill swallowed his pride as he cupped the buttocks of his worst enemy, his drug induced erection throbbing painfully between his legs as his tongue began to lick his tormentor's exposed anus in front of the one he loved and the young woman he had once had a huge crush on. He ruthlessly suppressed his discomfort, his tongue going into the other man, giving his foe pleasure as he accepted it as the high cost of living.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Training Day

Day 63 Afternoon

In a roughly twenty by thirty foot cavern, fifteen feet beneath the ground on a small , deserted island in the Pacific Ocean, Eric McGorrill was having the worst day of his life as his head was pulled closer to the buttocks of his worst enemy, who was currently enjoying the sensation of Eric's tongue probing into his anus. " Go deeper, you fucker, " Mark Watson moaned in pleasure, his outstretched arm pulling Eric's cinnamon haired head all the way to his firm buttocks. Not daring to refuse, Eric grimaced as he pushed his tongue in as deep as it could go. " Ah, that's so fuckin' good, ' Mark groaned, adding, " Play with my nuts, bitch boy." Eric did as he was told, reaching under to cup and caress the larger man's enormous scrotum.

From his vantage point up front, Richard Russell stroked his ten inch member in appreciation of the show going on in front of him. He smiled cruelly at Jackson, sitting on his knees on the floor in front of the older man, his Subversion induced erection an almost blood red color from barely leashed lust. He was barely maintaining his control as his lover rimmed the almost pathologically fit Mark. Finally, Mark pushed Eric away, getting back up to his feet. _Now what'll he have Eric do ? _Jackson thought, the drugs in his body making even breathing an erotic event. _I can't believe he's willing to stay this gentle with him without a reason. And I'm amazed Taylor is being so calm. That won't last._ He risked a quick look at the blonde, still sitting on the crate Mark had placed her, pale and shaking, but quiet. So far.

" You having a good time so far?" Mark inquired archly to Eric, who was on his knees, panting slightly form his exertions.

" Yes, Master." he said, giving the psychotic the answer he knew he desired, despite feeling the exact opposite.

" Good, then you'll REALLY love what we do next. Hope you don't get vertigo easy. Now, lay on the mat ."

_What the fuck is he gonna have me do know? _Eric wondered as he lay on his back on the mat. He felt a surge of fear overpowering the Subversion momentarily as Mark got on his knees on the edge of the mattress, picking and spreading Eric's long legs. He cupped his large hands under Eric's small butt and bowed Eric up into a loose U shape. It left Eric's throbbing erection dangling just inches from his own face. With a start, Eric realized in part what Mark was about to have him do. He was slowly and steadily being bent. His penis was no less than two inches from his face.

" Suck it. You know you've probably done it before, you limber little shit." Mark demanded, putting three of his fingers in his mouth. Before Eric could even think of protesting , Mark had unceremoniously rammed all three up his passage. Spasms of pain and pleasure rolled from his spine to his head and aching scrotum. " Damn, you're still pretty tight back here. Guess between getting hurt and him off fucking Mel too, you haven't gotten stretched good yet." He repeated his order, ramming his fingers in so hard Eric's hips bucked as he did, " Go on suck yourself."

_I haven't done this in at least two years,_ Eric thought, his entire body blushed from shame at his predicament, _and if asshole here wasn't breaking my back, I probably couldn't. _He did as he was told, bringing his neck up, opening his mouth and taking the head and first inch of the shaft into his own mouth as Mark continued to finger his asshole. Mark grinned down at him.

" Damn, you remind me of my dog. He's always doin' that same shit. Go on, pull it out and lick it some. Let Taylor see you doing it. And get comfortable, 'cause until you come in your own face, you ain't stopping."

The next half hour crawled for Eric. He sucked, licked and jerked at his penis like there was no tomorrow, hoping to save his punished rectum fro damage as Mark added three more fingers. Finally, he hissed as the desperately needed orgasm hit. Mark cackled with glee as he ordered, " Don't you dare swallow any, you jizz on that pretty boy face!" And , no options available, Eric did, three colossal jets of semen spraying onto his sharp featured face, liberally coating it. He thought he'd never stop coming.

Mark jumped up, letting Eric achingly uncurl. He pointed at Eric, addressing Taylor: " See what you had stalking you? A little pussy boy who sucked his own dick because nobody else'd touch it. And I bet he had just as many of his own fingers up his ass every time he did it."

Taylor closed her eyes and looked away. For all of a half second before Russell jumped over and grabbed her head. He turned her head back towards Eric, " Open those green eyes and look at your friend, you little slut!" Taylor cried out with the violence of it, but obeyed.

Six feet away, Cody Jackson had been on the verge of losing control and attacking Russell when Mark of all people turned on Russell angrily.

" Leave her alone dammit! You've got five to my two. You promised if I let you borrow Eric from time to time, you would leave Taylor alone!" The suddenly irate teen tensed, his taut muscles bulging in his anger. Russell stood up, obviously pissed off himself. They stared at one another for a long moment before Russell spoke.

" Yeah, I guess I gave my word and unlike Bob, when I give it I keep it, but one of these days kid, I won't need your Gramps and you and if you get in my face then, Eric and Jackson won't be the only ones well and truly fucked." Then, the malodorous brute snickered in appreciation of his own pun. Mark relaxed noticeably as he did, shaking his head with a rueful grimace.

" Sorry Rich, really. But I have special plans for her. Long term ones." he walked over to Taylor, oblivious to the woman shying away as her head was patted gently by him." He picked up a loose rag from a crate, flinging in at Eric, who had not dared to clean the glistening fluids off of his face. " Clean up asshole; you're outta breath from sucking yourself off and I want you rested for later." He gave a magnanimous rolling wave of the hands to Russell, " I think it's time for the main event, Uncle Richie." he said to his godfather.

" 'Bout damn time," quoth the pirate as he waddled over to Jackson, cupping his chin in a bear like hand. " You boyfriend got off easy compared to what I have in store for you. Open those pretty red lips and get my cock ready for that sweet hole of yours." taking a deep breath, Jackson reached out and gripped the huge member, opening his lips and rapping them around it for the second time that day. As before, the pungent aroma of the man was sickening, almost animalistic in its fierceness.

_Damn, did "Momma" Russell not teach her boys how to use a washcloth or deodorant ? _he thought as the big man roughly yanked at Jackson's sandy brown hair, jutting the cock in and out in a sawing motion. _God, this is just plain nasty, but I better hope I don't get cotton mouthed because, like Grandad used to say about the IRS at tax time, I'm about to get it with no grease! _He worked his jaws and ran his tongue around the obscenity in his filled mouth, trying to make the saliva flow. Fortunately, he succeeded, just in the nick of time as Russell withdrew from his lips abruptly. He sat down on the mattress, holding his erection p like a flashy nightstick. He didn't say a word to Cody, he pointed. _I may get half fried for this and Taylor may throw up the next time we're alone if she thinks about it, but I __**have**__ to lube up some. _He worked his mouth, swiftly put the fingers of his left hand in it momentarily, moistened them and, his breathing faltering from embarrassment, he swiftly lubed himself even as he slowly climber into position, Russell guiding the mammoth rod into him. Despite his efforts, Jackson definitely felt as if he was being impaled as he lowered himself down. _God in Heaven_, he said in silent prayer, _I got used to Eric, this thing , way bigger! _The Subversion turned the agony into pleasure within seconds, but it was powerless against what happened next. Russell reached around Jackson's firm stomach and bodily lifted him up and shoved him down so hard Cody bit blood from his bottom lip in an effort not to scream as his prostate was solidly hit .

" Like that punk," Russell taunted as he began slamming up into Jackson as if to go from his anus to the top of his skull, " make your little pecker tingle?" The crusty man moved one arms, grabbing Jackson's throbbing tool in a crushing grip, jerking at it as if to pull it off. " C'mon, bounce harder, " he admonished, squeezing at Jackson's balls now, causing him waves of pain and nausea. He began slapping his buttocks ever faster, up and down. Mercifully, Russell went back to the somewhat less painful jerking of Jackson's penis.

Taylor Hagen fought for control of her whipsawing emotions. She'd been more attracted to Jackson than she ever had another boy, but , realizing how much Mel had cared for him, she'd made the decision to steps back just when Abby had led Eric, Jackson and Mel straight to the other Russell, starting this chain of events. She'd also come to realize that she cared about Eric, almost like a brother as well as to realize that Jackson, Eric and Mel were truly in love with each other. She'd also known just how insecure Eric was in his sexuality before ever even getting on the plane at LA and she knew Jackson, for all of his courage, had a pronounced dislike of his body being exposed. _I don't think I've seen him with his shirt off three times in the whole time we've been stuck on these islands. And now, they're having __**this **__done to them , in front of Me! And this insane social climber acts like I should feel __**privileged **__to watch, that it's some sort of crazy love token of his!_

She looked at Mark out of the corner of her eyes; he was clearly enjoying the show, chuckling every time Russell slammed Jackson's narrow hips onto his penis. Taylor's skin seemed to crawl as the young man put an arms around her companionably. " Jackson seems to be having a good time, " Mark whispered into her ear, and in truth, the Subversion seemed to have him in its grip for he was no unabashedly grinding his hips onto Russell with no prompting and, to Taylor's dismay, he as even masturbating himself as he did it!

_Now I finally see what Mel's been telling us. No wonder the guys have been having nightmares and flashbacks about that stuff, it turns you into animals, _revolted, she tried to slowly pull away from Mark. He pulled her even closer, " If you don't quit resisting me, I'll be forced to take it out on Eric. I'm all that's keeping you from being passed around to the others like a cheap party favor." he muttered , growing irritation in his voice. Fighting down her inital reactions of panic and disgust, Taylor returned the embrace as Russell pushed Jackson off of him and beckoned to Eric.

" Ok bony ass, get over here." Swallowing nervously, Eric crawled from the matt he and Mark had been on to the other one. He stopped by a flushed Jackson, who seemed to be barely coherent by now. To be honest, Eric felt the same. Even with his orgasm only minutes behind him, his balls felt as if they would explode if he didn't get release and , to his shame, hoped he would be allowed to fuck his friend.

Which was what Russell had in mind, but not in the fashion Eric wanted. " Ok, " Russell growled, idly scratching at his hairy stomach, Jackson, flat on your back. Eric, on your knees over him, facing each others cocks." The two long limbed teens got into position. Jackson winced slightly as Eric climbed over him as the skinny mans knee grazed the side of his head. The sliver of pain actually helped him focus his thoughts, which most definitely **weren't** as drug glazed as he was acting.

_Cody, you better pray to God he doesn't realize that either his Subversion is second rate compared to what his brother gave us or I built up a tolerance somehow when he gave me that huge dose when Bob Russell was going to rape me to death, _Jackson thought to himself, reaching up to fondle Eric's dangling erection and testicles, hoping that it appeared he could barely contain himself. _I wish I could ask Eric if he's feeling the same or if it's just me. _He was brought back to reality as Russell gave commands to them.

" Ok, let's see some rimming from Jackson and some suckin' from scrawny. Get to it." he stood up, flogging himself as the tanned teens got underway.

Eric leaned over, grabbing Codys rod in his left hand, supporting himself with his right. His longish hair dangled down as he took the broad head into his mouth. He did his level best to ignore the eyes watching him as he concentrated on bringing pleasure to his lover. He sucked almost to the hairy root of the penis, his tongue running circles from the bottom to the tip. The , he pulled out, licking it from stem to stern, , occasionally turning his attention to the large balls below, taking them one at a time into his mouth, but then returning his efforts to the penis. He had waves of pleasure of his own as Jackson's tongue and fingers probed at his most private area. Far gentler than Mark, Cody was massaging the sore passage, his tongue penetrating softly. Cody's actions belied his nervousness, even as he reached one arm under Eric and gently jerked at the other teens dick.

_If I can't think of something, Mark'll kill him. Damn, every time Eric gets worked up, we all still ignore him and we're so motherfuckin' surprised when he was right all along. Even I did it, although I did at least tell Mark I'd hurt him if he tried anything. If we get out alive, that's one habit I have to break. I have to do something but I need time. If I have to suddenly become Russell's love slave to get that time, I will. Because I'm willing to kill to save him and I'll fuckin' die before I touch Lex, even if I have to kill myself._

" Stop, " the smelly ogre ordered, odiferous aroma making Jackson's nose twitch from five feet away, " Jackson, on your back. Eric, mount up like you're Roy Rogers on old Trigger!"

W_here do the Russell's come up with their sayings? Outta work comedy writers ? _was Eric's odd thought as they got into position. His stitches on his neck stung from the sweat he'd worked up and for some reason, the Subversion just wasn't working like he remembered from just a few days ago. Oh, he could probably still drill wood with the erection he had, but, _I'm not on cloud 9 like Cody seems to be._ He looked don at Jackson's hard on as he started to mount him.

" Face front asshole!" demanded Russell, " Mark wants Taylor to get a really good look at this action. Eric did as he was told.

"_Oh, I forgot how good it feels with him in there! _Eric almost sighed as the sensation of Jackson lancing into his lubed hole hit him. _We haven't had sex since three days after I got slashed by the creepy crawley. He was afraid I might burst my stitches. _His brief flash into pleasant memories ended as the trollish Russell strode over to them.

He looked down into Jackson's eyes, a cunning gleam in the black orbs. He looked over his shoulder to Mark and Taylor: " Let's see ho your friend handles some hard core d.p ."

_What the hell is d.p.? _a confused Taylor, who most assuredly did not watch a lot of porn wondered to herself.

Seeing her look of confusion, Mark explained in an aside, " It's short for double penetration Taylor." he said patiently. Then tittered as her face ran a gamut of expressions from awestruck to sickened in a single heartbeat.

"Ewww!!" cried the blonde, " Don't make them do that, please," she whined, " Eric could, uh, get internal injuries that way, couldn't he?" She tried her most winning smile on Mark, who was nervously watching Russell, afraid he'd take offense at Taylors interruption. Fortunately, the horny hairy heavyset man as amused, not angered.

" Not jealous are you sweetcakes? I'd gladly do the same to you, if you like. Just kiddin' Marko," he tacked on genially, seeing his godson scowling at him at that. He turned his attention back the twosome beneath him, Jackson slowly and steadily penetrating Eric all the while. " Well, hope you dilated kid, caue poppa's cumming in!" The big man got don astride them, covering Eric's far smaller body. The cruel creature was happy as he felt Eric trembling in incipient fear and anticipated pain as Russell firmly guided his erection to Eric's anus.

_OMG I'm gonna be ripped in half,_ as his agonized thought as Russell thrust his cock in without a pause. It took him only three seconds before he was up to his scruffy pubic hair in Eric's aching asshole. For thirty long seconds, Eric Jeremy McGorrill seemed to forget how to breath. He felt as if his body as being shredded as the two phalluses seemed to battle for dominance within him. He had just drawn breath when Russell seemed to go wild, beginning to ram into Eric like a fleshy piledriver. Jackson speeding up as well. The substandard Subversion was just not up to it; Eric was strating to hurt more than he as being turned on. Tears of pain ere plainly on his face for all to see despite the raging hard on he still had and the admitted pleasure from his over stimulated prostate.

He risked a look at Taylor. She had tears streaming don here face, the thuggish Mark however, he was actually masturbating with one arms on her shoulders at the same time!

Mark walked over beside them after noticing Eric gazing at him. " Hurry up Richie, I gotta present for "Erica" there and I want to give it to him when you get off."

"Sure," grunted Russell, hips firing away so hard Eric hair was whipping into the air from the force, " Nearly there, " he huffed, wide face growing redder by the second. Warned , Mark jacked furiously, pausing to spit on his dick, then wringing the moisture in furiously, his own breathing hard, his chest sweaty now. " Uhhh!! Now!" moaned Russell, pushing so hard and deep into Eric his legs trembled from the strain. He pulled out, whirling off Eric, to shoot a tremendous load right on Jackson's face just as Cody erupted deep inside Eric, lust warring with disgust. Before Jackson could pull out, he saw mark's long , tanned legs beside him. The other , larger teen reached and gripped Eric's chin. His right hand as a blur of motion as he masturbated.

" Eat up bitch," he said harshly, using his forefinger and thumb to open Eric's mouth. When he had it open, he put the tip of his prick to Eric's lips, then moaned as he sent five separate strings of cum into the open mouth. " Fuckin' swallow my load, you little shit," grated his tormentor.

What happened next took them all by surprise. Whether it as the oddly subdued Subversion, the horrendous pain Eric was in, the fact of _whose_ sperm it was, the tormented teen's nerves or what would never been known. But in the space of to seconds, as Mark was enjoying the show, he stood too close. Eric threw up violently , overtaken by a sudden nausea. And the bulk hit Mark squarely on his scrotum.

" Fuckin' nasty goddamned bastard!", he shouted in outrage. Hearing Russell break into hearty laughter made it ten times worse. Mark completely lost it; in his warped mind there as no doubt Eric had done it deliberately. And for that, he would pay.

In a flash, he stepped two paces back and sent a side kick squarely onto Eric's head, knocking him off Jackson. Cody didn't manage to even think about countering Mark's attack; the silent Potter hit the controller's button and Jackson's screech of anguish echoed in the chamber as 30,000 volts coursed through him, causing him to writhe in agony. And mark showed no interest in him at all. He walked over to where the battered and still sick Eric had curled on his side. He pulled the slightly built teen up by his hair. Once he had him up, he sent a knee into his groin with such force Eric went six inches into the air before crashing to the cavern floor. He lay on his back. As he started to fold his legs and curl up, Mark jumped astride, stopping him. The muscular teenager hit Eric's jaw so hard his head spun. Then, like he had done before, his hands closed on the injured neck and Eric's vision went dim as the air was choked from him. Mark wasn't content with that, he was simultaneously slamming Eric' s head on the floor.

_I'm through, _Eric thought, the pain fading as his consciousness faded. _I love you Mel. Cody , I love…_his thoughts ended with his consciousness.

Mark still throttled him. Jackson was worse than helpless for Russell was holding _him_ up by the throat and making him watch. The collar had hurt him enough for Russell to overpower him effortlessly. He looked as if he too was about to black out, to Russell's obvious pleasure. The madman actually jumped as a shrill scream split the stale air.

" LEAVE HIM ALONE MARK!" Taylor cried in a plea of sheer desperation. She might join the to boys in death, but she couldn't just stay a silent witness to their deaths. She trembled in fear as she bayed at the obsessed boy, knowing the one thing that would possibly stay his wrath and knowing what it could mean for her. To her credit, she didn't hesitate for a second. " PLEASE MARK! I'll do anything. I'll be your slave willingly! I'll do whatever you want, just don't kill my friends!" she burst into full tears, dropping to her knees. " Please, they're like my brothers, please, please don't kill them."

Mark looked at Taylor, obviously weighing his options; kill his enemy of have the girl of his deepest dreams his of her own free will. It wasn't even close. He let Eric's head drop with a thud. He got up, turning to give the unconscious boy a savage kick to the ribs before going to Taylor. He reached down and gently pulled her up. He forced her to look at him as he made his on declaration.

" Fine. I'll spare his life. But, if you're trying to trick me, I'll kill him in a way that'll make the three of you wish he'd died today. I'll skin him alive and I'm not just saying that Tay, " he warned, the flat look on his face showing that he wasn't kidding. Uncle Rich,' he said to the man choking Cody, " is that cool with you?

Russell grunted his assent, " Yeah, I haven't had near enough time to train my bitch. Just so you keep yours under control." he added in a warning of his own, flinging the barely conscious Jackson to the mattress. " And I think you outta make her give you a don payment in front of these to after while, to show you mean business.' he suggested.

Mark looked at Taylor, calculating. He shook his head as he made a decision. " Yeah. Good idea. Taylor, " he held her tightly, "I'm not about to make you blow me or give your virginity to me just yet. But, there is something you are going to do, in front of them and all your friends tomorrow night." He looked at her expectantly.

" What?" she asked, a dozen nightmarish scenarios playing in her head.

Mark grinned, " You're going to give them a demonstration of Perversion. You. Mel and Daley are gonna lez it up for us all to see and then, I'm going to do the one thing to you I can and you still be technically a virgin."

Taylor looked blank while Russell mocked her, " OOH, I'm so clueless. Ha!"

" Anal sex would still leave you a virgin." And the still nude young man's foot long penis twitched noticeably as he informed her of his plans.

She spoke a single word, " Ok.". Then, her supply of courage and her love of her friends overwhelmed by panic, Taylor collapsed.

Mark dressed swiftly after making sure she was breathing normally. He picked her up and walked out the door. A dressed Russell and Harry Potter followed them out. The unmistakable sound of a padlock being placed could been heard. A barely conscious Jackson crawled slowly and painfully over to Eric. Once he satisfied his self that Eric was breathing, he curled up around him and his shoulders jerked as he cried.

_I don't have a clue as to what to do now, _he thought as the darkness claimed him.


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26**

**Consequences of A Conscience**

**Day 63**

**Afternoon**

**The first time Lex and his guard, Little J heard noise form the chamber next to them, Lex started shivering. He put the earphones onto his head and cranked the sound up. However , only one side was working. Not much was being muffled and then, the screen went blank. **_**Oh, great, **_**the ten year old though mordantly, **_**no there's nothing to keep the noise out. And they're getting even louder. **_**He tried to keep from visualizing what was probably happening behind the closed door. The boys cupped his hand over his ears as he plainly heard Russell ordering Jackson to do an unspeakable act. He closed his eyes, trying to will the world away when he left a huge, warm hand gently shaking his shoulder. He let out an involuntary noise as the Samoan man shook him to get his attention.**

" **C'mon kid, " he said in a voice so deep it seemed to come from the bottom of a cave, his brown eyes squinting as another round of sounds could be heard plainly, " I think it's stopped rainin' and I'd a lot rather be outside not hearin' this shit. Wouldn't you?" he asked, surprising Lex with the venom in the statement. He man, shock controller dropped into his pants pocket, walked over and opened the cavern's rooftop door. " After you , Lex, ain't it?" he said, gesturing the boy forwards.**

**Lex shook his head, still highly wary of Little J. he walked over and climbed the rope ladder to the top. He was joined by Little J, ho let the wooden cover close with a clatter. He pointed at the trail to the beach, waiting for Lex to start walking. The two of them took off through the wet, muggy jungle. After the first minute, there was an almost comfortable silence between them. They made it to the beach and Little J indicated that they should go onto the beached Rosebud to sit.**

**After climbing onboard, the man stretched his legs out, plopping down on the rough bench in front while Lex sat on the seat they had rigged for Mel, a crude "captain's chair". " Now , don't get any ideas 'bout runnin' away kid, " he rumbled, " even if you got fifty yards away, these collars'll shock the shit outta you continually if you get outta their signal range. Believe it or not, the idea of you getting blasted don't do much for me." **

" **I won't, " he said in his child's treble voice. They sat for a while before Lex cautiously ventured a question to Little Jay, who now had his arms folded on his chest and looked very relaxed, " Why do you people do it?" He cringed slightly, fearing an outburst like Russell was prone to.**

**Little J sniffed, " What? The slaving, the drugs, what do you wanta know?"**

**He seemed willing to speak freely so Lex plowed on.**

" **All of it I guess. I mean, " his voice cracked as he felt a fresh rush of anxiety, " Why? And why torture, rape and probably kill all of us? We only defended ourselves from Captain Russell." Suddenly, something seemed to snap in the scared child and the real questions burst for, emphasized by the unmistakable broken words of a child who was almost literally being scared to death. " Jackson saved my life, he, Mel and Eric! The captain wanted me for a slave, so does his brother! I'm just a kid! I don't ant to be raped and I sure don't want to be a slave. I didn't do anything to deserve this and neither did my sister or our friends!" He put his head on his lap, sobbing uncontrollably.**

**He would have possibly felt slightly better if he had seen the glimmer of sympathy that flickered through the Samoan's eyes.**

_**Damn Bob and Richie for ever getting me involved in this shit! Richie wanting vengeance, yeah, I could see it, but it sounds like he finally got hat his sick ass deserved. Yeah, Richie's gotta sick thing for kids too, but Bob was just a step away from bein' the next John ayne Gacy before he got sick! Richie saved my life, he helped get me the money so send my folks to the US, to get 'em offa Samoa. He's been loyal. E done shit together I'll go straight ta the pits over, but he's losin' it. And the Nutty Doctor and his little grandbaby are just as bad. Yeah, I run drugs, even fucked a fe of the older slaves when I got hooked on that Subversion shit for a while, but this is plain wrong. But if he thinks I'm gonna go against Richie to save his friends, I can't. It's about keepin' your word and I gave ot to Richie before this kid was born! Rich would kill me and prb'bly every one a my family if I ent against him. **_

He looked over whwre Lex's small body shook with the tears. He pictured Rich's naked body atop him . He heard Lex's screams in his head. Most of all, he thought about his own son, who he hadn't seen in the twelve years he'd been with this crew. He thought about what it must be like for Jackson and Eric, both far older than most of the slaves they'd every caught and raised so very different. About how they were going to be raped and killed for protecting the boy from Bob Russell and his brother. All of these thoughts went through his head.

_I'm getting soft. I may regret it, but I have to at least try to talk him outta some of this shit. He pretty much has to kill the others or their all potential witnesses against all of us, but maybe I can get him to let me keep this boy. Maybe I can get him to sell him to some place far enough away he won't have to kill him too. _A thousand possibilities went through his head, but they all ended badly. _I'll have ta think of something'._

He got up and walked to Lex, dropping uncomfortably beside hi,. He put a hesitant hand on the child's shoulder. " Boy, look p at me for a second, hey."

Still openly crying, Lex turned a tear stained face up at the imposing man.

" I can't promise anything. I owe Rich too damn much, money and blood, to go all the ay against him, but this. This situation is just fucked up . I can't save your friends." he felt a unfamiliar pang of pity as he saw the fear in Lex's eyes at his admission, " About the best I can do is to try to save you. That's all I can do. It probably won't do any good, but I sear I'll talk to my partner about you after while. Maybe, ' he added acidly, ' a\if your friends gave the ol' pervert a good time, he'll be inna good mood.' he pulled distractedly at his jet black pony tail, his neck seating under it. " Ok ?"

Lex wiped his eyes. He anted so desperately to hope and believe, but he couldn't , not yet. He just didn't know this man that well. He did owe it to at least be polite about it.

" Thanks. I hope you can, but hat about my sister and the others."

J sighed in resignation. " For no, the redhaired girl, the black guy and what's her name, Mel should be safe enough. The Doc likes at mess ith little girls mainly. Sick fuck. He'll be decent ot them as long as they work hard on the crop. It's Dingo the black kid better watch; he almost as hot for mixed kids as Bob as little boys."

A frisson of fear for Nathan raced in Lex's head, but he had a more immediate concern. " What about Taylor, Eric and Jackson?"

" Boy, I told you, I fuckin' can't help those two boys! Try to understand. The girl though, she's got different problem. Psycho Markie Mark has the hots for her big time. He'll get in her pants one way or the other. She may have a chance on getting out alive, for a while at least. Doc'll have to try to keep her safe and Rich can't get nearly the drugs without Doc helping; he's the one who figured out how to make Subversion inta Perversion and he's smart enough he didn't even tell Mark. She's got as good a chance of stayin alive as you."

" I wish we never crashed on that fucking island!" Lex swore. He let out a cry of pain as Little J cuffed his ear. Lex looked a back at his with a hurt that wasn't just physical. "What as that for?'

Little J sneered, " I though you as a damn genius! First, I hate hearin kids cuss for no reason." He gave a hard look at Lex, " But even more, I hate it when smart people say dumb things. Hell, Mark, Doc and the Russell's planned that crash months ago. Hell, Doc was the one who gave them the idea for the trip to Palau, remember?"

In honesty, Lex had never known whose idea it was, but now things were far clearer. " "how?" he asked.

Little J expanded on it: " Mark and Doc couldn't do all of the work themselves anymore. Back 20 years ago, the Russell boys were inna USAF ith Doc. They got inot some small time smuggling. Doc wound up on Guam. He found the old maps and decided to make a place on some of these islands to hide things. Eventually, some old Chammoro told his about the plants on a couple pof these islands being what do ya callem aphrodisiacs. Doc , he came out and took some to a chemist friend. They mixed it with some new depression drugs and BLAM! A drug that makes you able to fuck like rabbits and even better, if you're a S&M freak, pain really is pleasure with it."

Lex risked an interruption: " What about the slavers:?"

" Kid, people been peddlin' kid here for thousands of years. I an't sayin it's right, but some folks on these islands, a few, would rather sell their kids than lettem die of diseases most countries have treatments for. They figure even a slaves life beats no life." He looked don for a second, honesty making him add, " Course, a slave'd disagrree most likely. Anyhow, Bob and the Doc met in Thailand at a whorehouse. One thing led to another and they became partners. Doc needed backers and Bob found some. When they found out Subversion makes kids into zombies, they were tickled pink. How do you think the Doctor got money? Teacher's usually ain't rich."

" No, you're right. And I had wondered about that. Three years ago, the Doctor nearly got fired for filing bankruptcy. It was a Hartwell scandal," Lex offered.

" Ha! I bet that old snob had a bitch fit over that, the old bastard." Jay laughed heartily; his dislike of the Watson's was sincere and mutual."

"Back to what I was sayin'; now they came up with Perversion. That shit's scary. It makes you act out your darkest fantasies. Stuff you'd never tell a soul about." He gave Lex a pat on the arm even as he scared him to his young sould ith his next words, " And it feeds offa hat you care about. If he really did give Jackosn some and tie you together, he'd rape you. Even if you put a fuckin' Playboy or Playgirl, depending on his tastes, next to the to of you, he'd rape you because he loves you. That's why they call it that. It perverts your affections inna way you can't fight . It's evil." he suddenly lunged to his feet, " And I'll got to Hell for messing with it. Boy, Lex, I don't know how, but I ill find a way to keep you safe. Even if I get onna outs with Richie for a while. But don't expect miracles; I just can't figure a way to help your friends." He as about to add more when the radio on his waist squawked. Irritably, he answered it. "What ya want ?"

" J, you n the brat on the beach?" asked Russell, coughing for some reason.

" Yeah, you need us?"

" It's almost suppertime. Someone's gotta feed these brats and you're the best cook here." Russell laughed.

" Be there in a few. Work up and appetite?"

" Man, my balls are good n drained. The runts as tight as hell and Jackson, man , that kid can suck cock like a champ. Poor Mark's pissed, Eric blew chunks on him! It was priceless seeing that asshole takin' shit for a change."

Jay cackled, " Wish I'd seen that part. He still mad?"

" Nah, he beat the fuck outta him, but quit when Blondie promised to take it up the ass if he'd quit. Among other things ?"

Lex as frantic with fear. Little J clamped his hand over Lex's mouth lest Russsel hear him. " I'm on my way. He hurt 'im bad."

Russell responded, " Knocked him out, but he's alive. Jackson got to ride the lighting for a while, but he's in better shape than Eric. Come on in and cook man. I'm stravin'."

Little J hung the radio on his belt and took his hand away. He looked at Lex, pointing a finger at him. " You wanna be safe, follow my lead. No arguments, no questions. Deal."

" Deal." Lex responded, holding out a tiny fist.

Shaking his head at the situation he'd let his heart get him into, the huge Samoan bumped his gargantuan knuckles with Lex's , his hand substantially larger than Lex's head.

The to unlikely allies went back to the cave.


	27. Chapter 27

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Sorry it's taken a little longer to update; I had a crisis at home. Good news is I helped give my landlord cpr and saved his life, bad news is he's now in a coma.

JOHNNY PACAR has a Facebook page and his new band, Fairlene, has a MySpace page. There's a song on it; go listen! NOW! His show, Make It or Break It is up for a teen's choice awards; go vote for the show that got him back on the air!

And now, back to the continuing saga…..

Chapter 27

Innocence Lost

Day 64 Mid morning, the island across the bay

" Come along children, there's work to be done, "' came the chipper voice of Doctor Luther Watson as the three captives finished with their current task of cleaning up after their scanty breakfast. It mainly consisted of the same field rations they had been subsisting off of on the old island, but without any fruit or fish to enhance it. Apparently, the pirate crowd didn't go in for fishing much. " Don't dawdle." he said, tapping his walking stick meaningfully. The three of them had learned to respect that cane, even if they had no respect for it's wielder. The elderly man stood watching them as Dingo, Mac Hale and Sakai, the enforcers of the group got into flanking positions around the slaves as they went to the valley in the center of the small islet.

They had been taken there for the first time the day before. It had not been an easy trek. The ancient path was surrounded by vines and brambles, there were bogs and sinkholes and at least a thousand insects to the square meter. The work clearing, as such, was just barely big enough for them to move in. And then there was the actual work.

The three teens had been put to work gathering the small purplish plants that the Subversion and Perversion nectar was harvest from. It involved being almost invariable stabbed by the many small thorns on the plant, which was irritating enough, especially since the captives were not provided with gloves, but the plant, "Tarasia", Watson's name for it, seemed to be distantly related to poison ivy; it was almost impossible to stop scratching after touching the stuff. And once they'd gathered up enough, they had to haul I back to the small seaside cavern the pirates used as a base and help process it. Which involved 5 hours of boiling, straining, mashing, boiling again, then straining it a final time before Doctor Watson would take it to his own small cavern at the back to add the final touches.

With all of the necessary boiling, a constant supply of wood was needed and that was here they'd put Nathan today, as yesterday. He and the perpetually disgruntled Dingo were off in the jungle gathering deadfall. Or, to be honest, Nathan was. Dingo as idly watching, his pistol in it's holster, his rifle slung over his back, his controller in his hand. That bothered Nathan almost as bad as the fact that Dingo took a delight in finding reasons to get Nathan to bend over in front of him , giving him an opportunity to make comments about the teen's rear.

" Dammit, you fuckin' half breed, reach over and get that chunk of wood", the dingy blond haired man demanded, " Quit pickin' the smallest ones up or I'll give you a jolt again!" He pointed the controller at Nathan McHugh menacingly.

_Oh shit, here we go again! _the russet haired young man thought, his testicles wanting to creep inside him at the thought of being jolted off his feet again by the shock collar around his sienna toned neck. _It was bad enough being shocked earlier! _He'd tripped and fell earlier in the day, an armful of "tarasia" held to his chest. He'd crushed some of it and Dingo had went ballistic, giving him a ten second shock. _I can't believe the sadistic asshole let me change my pants after I wet them from the blast. Of course, _he thought darkly, _he made sure he got a peep show from me at the time. I'm surprised my ass isn't blistered from all of the attention he gives it! What's up with half these "pirates" being perverts anyways? _he thought, hurriedly fighting down a sour grin at the thought.

" Move your bloody arse, abo!" Dingo screeched, " I'm ready to get back to the cave and out of this flamin' heat."

The two of them slowly made their way back to the almost hidden cave.

**************************************************************

Midday

Daley Marin and Melissa " Mel" Wu were busy as well. They were heavily involved in the boiling of the current batch of Subversion/Perversion. Doctor Watson was busily scuttling back and forth from the larger to the smaller caverns, mumbling to himself the whole time. The frail looking Mac Hale was cleaning his pistol on an ancient table and the fierce faced Japanese, known only as Sakai, was standing guard over the two teenage girls. He would walk circles around them, starting in close, then expanding the circle to cover the whole cave, then close in again.

_It's like having a vulture circling overhead or like Eric when fish is being cooked, _Daley thought to herself, wiping seat from her pale forehead as she stireed the big black kettle she as handling. She looked p as the familiar form of their treacherous teacher emerged from the smaller cave, undoubtedly to give more advice on ho to properly stir the simmering leaves of the plants.

" Miss Marin, Miss Wu, " he honked in his effete sounding drawl, " please be more careful with those ladles! The product is substandard if it's bruised excessively. You needn't try to strain so hard." He gave them hat Mel as sure as supposed to be a winning, sincere smile, " It will take however long it takes." The smile faded as he realized they weren't smiling back. " Oh my, such hostility, and when I'd just been asked to bring the three of you to the supply island this evening. Perhaps you'd rather stay here?" he asked, sarcasm plainly showing in his voice.

"NO!, "Daley protested heatedly, moderating her tone at a quelling glare from Watson, " I'm sorry, sir," she hastened to say, " I want to see my brother, " she said plaintively.

" And you Miss Wu, " the old amn asked, leaning on his cane, his white shirt and shorts making Mel have a flashback to the Hammond character in the Jurassic Park films, " I presume you'd like to see your, uh, paramours, I presume?" White teeth gleamed in a false smile as he waited for a response."

" Yeas, I'd like to see all of them sir." Mel replied softly, brushing her hair back as she did.

" Well, " the man said in a thoughtful tone, " you'll both have to do better on production. We need better quality and more speed. Do the to of you think that you can apply yourselves more?" he asked.

The two of them nodded assent.

Pleased, the slaver went on, " And I would assume Mr. McHugh would like to go as well. But, he's not here to speak for himself right now. We can't have that." He used his radio to summon Dingo and Nathan.

Ten minutes later, an exhausted Nathan McHugh and a wilted looking Dingo were in the cave. Watson had explained the summons to them en route. Dingo was, predictably, complaining.

"Doc, it's hot as hell outside and this shit you're brewing has the cave smelling like my great aunt Daisy's bleedin' bloomers!" Fortunately, he didn't notice the bit off snicker from Daley over the booming laughter of Sakai and the weedy Hale. " Sod off you two!" he snarled a them, wiping his face ith a yellow rag. " No , what's goin' on you old poof?"

The sixtyish man smilled, " Why, I was just trying to ascertain just ho badly our captives here wished to attend the good Russell's invitation to supper.".

" You know as ell as I do that if our Fearless leader want's a crown around 'im, it's to humiliate someone or to brag about something. Or both. Fuckin' male prima donna." he snorted contemptuously.

" Be that as is may, " the pompous old windbag blew on, " if the children here would like to go, then they need to earn their right to attend." he saqid suggestively.

A suggestion which made Dingo' s prominent ears and another part of his anatomy twitch. " Are you suggestin' they may need to, ahem, _bribe_ us inot letting' them see their loved ones," he said, a cunning gleam in his grey eyes, a incipient leer on his thin lips.

" Oh, they could try, " Watson replied salaciously, " but it would be better if they volunteered instead."

" Volunteer for what?" Nathan blurted out, tired of the enforced drama.

" Why to test out our latest batch, of course." was Watson's deceptively bland reply, an appallingly ridiculous expression of innocence on his bronze face.

" You've got to be kidding!" Daley gurgled in horror, " I ouldn't touch that stuff if my life depended on it!"

" It fuckin' well might," Dingo retorted hotly, jumping to his feet, controller in hand, " Little Miss Fuckin' Kno-It-All!"

Sensing that his fun was in danger, Watson interceded, "Calm down everyone." When the tension had dropped slightly, he turned back to Daley.

"Miss Marin, if I keep you here for disobedience, my college, Richard, may not like it. He may decide to punish your brother, our boyfriend or you yourself . Isn't it better to voluntarily do this than to create problems for everyone."

_So, basically, it's " Let us here get our freak on with you or let Russell carry out his threat to have Jackson fuck Lex! _And ith that thought, she knew her decision had been made already. It was only what passed for Watson's conscience making them go through this charade. " Ok, I volunteer."

By this time, Nathan had went through the same logic chain as Daley and had made his mind up as well. " Me too."

_I don't have a choice. Anything I say will make things worse, _Mel thought, _I feel bad for Daley and Nathan; I've been through it already. I just hope Doctor Watson's not as bad as Bob Russell was. _" I guess it's unanimous."

She said, dejected to her soul by the words she'd uttered.

" Excellent!" Watson beamed, pulling three small vials of drugs out of one of the many pockets on his white Bermuda shorts. "You two ladies ill gets the Subversion. After Nathan opens the show with the Perversion."

Nathan McHugh's eyes bulged. He shot a glance at Dingo, who grinned openly before taunting Nathan.

" Guess Father Christmas is coming early this year" He proudly rubbed at a rather large bulge in his khaki pants.

Nathan's head swam as Watson spoke: " Let's get it started then. Clothes off children. Hale, Sakai, please keep them covered for us. Dingo, you'd best give Mr. McHugh there his shot."

All as silent save for the rustling sounds of clothe being divested an an inaudible sound of more innocence being lost on a deserted island chain in the south Pacific .


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Undercurrents

Day 64 Earlier that morning, supply island

At any moment, Jackson expected the door to open and Eric to be killed before his eyes.

It had been a long, harrowing night. Eric had yet to really wake up and Cody was concerned that his fresh injuries might simply be too much for his battered body to survive. The smaller teen still had stitched on his freshly assaulted neck from the Cloverfield parasite they had fought less than three weeks ago. Now, he had a truly spectacular black eye and even in the dim light of the one lamp that had been left, Cody could clearly see Mark Watson's large fingerprints on Eric's neck. Combined with the vehemently violent sex that Eric had been forced to have with Jackson himself and Richard Russell and the lingering aftereffects of the oddly weak Subversion, it was actually a surprise that he was alive.

_I wouldn't worry quite so much if it was me , Nathan, or even Mel in his shape; we're all a lot more fit than Eric, although he IS in better shape than he was just a couple of weeks ago. Damn that fuckin' psycho Mark! How the fuck did __**he**__ ever get mixed into shit like this?!_

Other concerns were beginning to assert themselves into his exhausted mind. Fear for Mel was burning brightly in his heart, but the absolute dread of seeing Lex chilled him to his soul. In all honestly, he'd far. far rather have been simply told to kill himself than to be subjected to being drugged into the threatened action with ANY child, much less his ten year old friend. He fully planned on launching a suicidal attack on Russell first. Fear for the others was there, especially for Taylor, who had put her own life on the line for he and Eric yesterday.

Only her solemn promise to be Mark's willing slave had prevented the deranged bully from beating Eric to death. And now, she was supposed to be sexually humiliated with Daley and Mel, in front of them all and then, to be

sunjected to public anal sex with Mark that night.

_And the way the 29doweners luck goes, that'll just be for starters, _Jackson thought. His attention suddenly went to his left as Eric, silent all night, moaned painfully. Jackson reached over and helped him from where he was struggling to sit up. " Not too fast, you'll puke," he warned as Eric pt a ginger hand to his blackened left eye.

His good eye was wide in astonishment at the amount of pain he was in. " Fucking hell!" His hands went from his eye to his ribcage, discolored as well, " Man, he must've tried to kick a field goal with me. And I don't even want to get started on how my backdoor's feeling." he said, looking uncomfortably at Jackson, who suddenly couldn't meet his eyes. Sensing the problem, Eric attacked the issue immediately, typically for him. " You didn't have a say in it; it's fuckin' stupid to blame yourself, man. That's exactly what you'd have said to me." He put a shaky arm on Jackson's shoulder, " Any sign of 'em?"

Breathing deeply, he answered, " No. They didn't even bother to look in here. I guess since they took out all the hunting stuff and knives, they figure they can handle anything we might drag out. Plus, they took our clothes."

Eric laughed with no humor:" Guess they figured they keep us easy access."

"I can't believe you're feeling good enough to be joking." Cody said, a look of mild disbelief on his face. " I figured you'd either be ready to give it all up or mad as hell, not this."

"Oh, I'm plenty mad, " he said, a disgruntled oof coming from him as he rose to his feet shakily, " but I'm sure you're planning' something by now?"

He looked at Jackson expectantly. And looked dismayed hen he shook his head in the negative.

" I'm clueless. If it weren't for Lex and Taylor, I'd be willing to get violent a lot quicker, but with them as hostages against us…" he shook his head in one of his odd twitches, " It makes it nearly impossible."

Sudden concern bloomed on Eric's face. " Taylor! What happened with her? I kinda thought I heard her screaming with that fucker was bashin' me, but I blacked out." His concern for girl who had been his closest friend on the island showed plainly. He waited for Jackson to speak.

" She saved our lives. Well, probably mine, since I Would have went for that bastard if he'd killed you, but definitely yours." He hesitated, unsure of Eric's reaction.

"What?! Dammit Cody, I know when you're tryin' to spare people bad news. How did she save us?!" He paced like an caged animal as he waited for a reply.

" She told Mark she'd become his sex slave. He told her he'd spare you if she'd have gay sex with Mel and Daley. And if he could get her up the ass in front of all of us." he stood there, defeat showing in his every movement.

" IS SHE OUTTA HER GODDAMNED MIND?! THAT SICK FUCK MIGHT KILL HER TOO!' Eric was about to continue on when the cavern door was suddenly slung open with a resounding crash.

Richard Russell's huge girth filled the doorway, controller in one hand, pistol in the other. Potter could be seen in the background, Mark as well.

" Shut the fuck up now, you little cocksuckers, " the pirate leader snarled at the two younger and smaller men. He strode in, a palpable air of menace in the air with him. He had a sneer on his face as he looked at them, the sneer now replaced by contempt. " No warnings. You only talk when I say you can or to answer questions. I fuckin want to see progress by the end of the day, or I swear I'll make you both regret it." And with that, he turned, shouldered Mark aside and stalked out of the room.

*************************************************************

To Jackson's delight and relief, Taylor and Lex were both alive and unmolested, so far as he could see. To his further relief, he, the gigantic Little J and Lex were working together. Eric had been assigned to help the quiet Potter, but that was far safer than him working with Mark, who was helping Russell with the gathering of some of the plants that the drugs were produced with on the third isle, to the west. Taylor had, of course, had to go with Mark. Even better, Little J had told him they could speak, but only at a whisper.

After a half hour of seeing just how relaxed around Little J Lex was, Jackson began to be confused. _What's going on here? Lex's terrified of the other pirates; what's different about him. He didn't protest any when everything was going on yesterday, _he thought bitterly. _Maybe he's trying to get lex to let his guard down… nah, Lex's way too smart for that. _He turned his attention back to where he was using a small hand axe to chop trees for the frame of the boat.

Little J had warned him in no uncertain terms what would happen if he tried anything with the axe.

"I would hate to upset my little friend here, but I'll break every bone in your right hand if ya try anything stupid. You'd still be able to haul left handed, since that's the hand you use for everything anyways."

Jackson's eyebrow's climbed at that. " How did you know I was left handed?"

The huge man laughed at his surprise . " Boy, I'm a southpaw myself. That's one a the first things I notice 'bout someone. I bet I can tell ya something' else about you too, " he said almost challengingly.

" What?" he asked, unable to keep the skeptical tone from his voice."

" You play guitar. An you do it a lot."

" Did Lex tell you that?" he asked, looking at the smiling ten year old, contentedly sitting on a fallen log and watching the byplay.

" Dumbass!"' he pointed a ham sized hand at Jackson's on hand, " I see the calluses. Unless you jerk off pathologically, that's the only thing I know of that'll give you calluses on the pads of your fingers like that." He had an enormous grin at Jackson's expression.

_Man, I wonder what he'd think if I told him how much he reminds me of his brother! The problem is, it might hurt us or help us and I'm scared right now to find out which. _Jackson watched as Little J went back to work, unlimbering his shouldered axe and doing the same.

The time passed slowly for the three of them. The sweltering heat and stifling humidity only made it worse. They would chop for 45 minutes, take a half hour dragging the felled trees to the beach, rest for ten or so minutes and repeat the process. It was almost as monotonous as it was difficult. By around 2 p.m. , they were on their fourth load. Little J as in the rear, Jackson ahead of him and Lex in the lead. The other two had learned swiftly that the boy had a knack for finding the best paths to follow,

" Whew, " the three hundred pound plus Samoan huffed, wiping at his face with a brilliantly hued bandanna. It had a set of ideographs that looked familiar to Jackson, " Let's catch our wind guys, " J said. Jackson looked at the bandanna for a moment longer, then ventured a question.

" Isn't that the symbol for Tagaloa?" he asked quietly, indicating the symbol.

Little J looked at Cody in mild surprise, " You know a little something' about Samoan myths, slim?" He spread the cloth out so it could been seen easier.

" I went to Chavez High in L.A. for a while, " Jackson offered by way of explanation.

Little J grinned toothily, "Bet you was the only white guy there!"

Despite himself, Jackson grinned back, admitting wryly, " Pretty much. I think there may have been one or to more, but I didn't look too hard. I just tried to blend in."

" Hard to do in a place like that, " J conceded. " You listen to any of my folk's kinda music young blood?"

" Some King Kapisi, I really get into Scribe and the Decepticonz." he replied completely deadpan.

Little J was now looking at him as if he'd just been offered a glass of lemonade and an invitation to a Black Mass. For ten seconds he sat there, completely stupefied. Then, a great, hoarse, booming series of laughs burst from his barrel sized chest. Not just the laughter of someone who's amused, but the gut busting sounds you might expect from someone who has just seen pigs fly oinking overhead.

Jackson and Lex exchanged a sort of wtf look known by young people the world over when adults find something hilarious that is ordinary to them.

Tears of laughter rolling don his bronze skin, Little J pointed a shaky finger at Cody Jackson and declared, laughter still echoing in his bas voice, " You're either telling the truth or you're the best damn liar I ever met and since that included the Russell twins that's sayin' something."

The mood was relaxed. They were all tired, hot and their guard was don. Whether it was their presence or the noise they had been making, it did not matter. Jackson was opening his mouth to ask Little J a question about another of the symbols on his bandanna when it happened without warning.

There was a crash in the brush directly behind Little J. The scrub parted violently as a grayish white form smashed through it. It jumped on Little J's big back so swiftly the impact sent the man sprawling. Only pure instincts working at the moment, Jackson grabbed Lex's arm and, putting his body between lex and the parasite, ordered , "Run Lex!", shoving him in the opposite direction of the monster.

"We can't, " Lex rasped, " we'll get shocked!"

" Better shocked than fucking eaten! Now run!" Jackson pushed Lex once more. The small boy ran, legs pumping swiftly in the soft dirt. Then, about 30 yards away, he stopped when he realized Jackson was still standing there. Motionlessly watching Little J try to fight the monster off.

" Jackson, " the shrill tenor cried out desperately, " help him! He's not like the others."

Jackson stood still.

The creature was now astride Little J, who had managed to roll over to his stomach. He had a rotten tree limb, uselessly hitting the thing with it. His pistol was nowhere to be seen. Apparently, it had been lost in the attack.

" Help me!". The cry came from the throat of a man who had willingly enslaved children. Who had sold drugs to thousands. Who had done God alone knows what to so many victims in his life. And who had sworn to a scared ten year old that he would not let him be raped or killed. Ho as willing to risk his life to keep him safe.

" Cody, please, help Little J, he's on our side." came the heartfelt plea of Alexander Marin.

" Help me!" Little J screamed once more as his feeble stick shattered.

In that instant, memories flooded Jackson. Memories of a man so much like J, who had done so much to help a scared white boy in a rough part of town. Who had never lied to him, who had encouraged him not to give up on his mother. Ho had been to bat for him with the police and his probation officer. Who, the night before they left on the Palau trip had nearly been stabbed to death to protect him. The brother of this man, who Lex, another brother to Jackson, was begging him to help.

Jackson made his choice.

The creature from the depths was raising its head to bite, it's six limbs entangling Little J when a hundred and sixty pounds hit it in a sliding dropkick. The monster was knocked off of Little J, who was turned over himself by the impact. He looked up to see his captive facing off against his would be killer. Jackson wasn't completely defenseless, he had the puny protection of the hand axe against the toxic creature.

Jackson shouted a warning to Little J as he and the six legged freak faced off: " Don't let it bite you! It kills anything it bites!"

" I don't plan on getting' bit; keep it busy while I find my gun." he commanded, starting to look around frenziedly for the firearm. He let a startled sound as a small, shaking arm held the antique .44 caliber to him.

Lex's flashed a smile at the big man, who grinned and thanked him.

" Good job boy." He didn't hesitate, he emptied the clip into the monster at a range of barely ten feet. The monster lay on the ground, greenish ochor spewing from the holes. Then the radio crackled at them in Russell's voice.

" What the fuck's goin' on ? Who fired those shots?"

A disgusted look on his face, Little J picked the radio up from it's hiding spot under a fern and answered the leader of the group. " It's me, Richie. One a those things we killed last month nearly got us, but I got it first."

He winked at the indignant look Lex gave him at that. " Let me catch my breath and change my drawers and I'll get my bunch back to the base. See you in a little while."

" All right, but don't take all damn day. Loverboy here's looking forward to strutting his stuff tonight." he cackled into the other end . It was probably a good thing Russell and Watson couldn't see the troubled eyes of the Samoan.

He waved Jackson and Lex to their vacated log they had been on earlier. He sat on his log for a couple of minutes silently. Then, he pulled the gun out and sat it on the ground between them. His face was haggard , his demeanor subdued as he asked the to in front of him: " Why?"

" Why didn't you let it kill me? I probably would've let it kill you, at least, " he said to Jackson. " I would have tried to save you both, but, I'd have tried hared for Lex. Why save me, when I'm one a the fuckin' enemy?" His voice grew louder, his expression more confused. " Why?"

Lex said plainly, simply, " You were nice to me . You told Russell you'd keep me, just so he would leave me alone. And I believe you're not a bad guy."

" Kid, you'd have nightmares for a year if I told you just half the things I did this year alone, much less than my in my whole damn life! I've raped, robbed, lied, stole and done just about every sin there is, I already done, " he protested, his English faltering into the Samoan accent of his childhood in his pain. " Dammit…" Tears were threatening to fall from his brown eyes.

Jackson looked at him and decided with the same, odd sort of clarity he had experienced when he decided to save the man's life, he told him the truth.

" Because your brother, Big J, Juan , has helped me out for over a year. He's kept me sane, kept me from killing myself, from wrecking my life and I owe him my life. Literally. The night before we left on our trip, he got stabbed defending me to my own old gang."

Jamal, Little J, stammered in stunned disbelief, " Big J! You know Juan?! But, he was in prison the last I heard! He seemed to be goin' the same path as me!" he so plainly anted to believe Jackson but the doubt as still there as well.

" He went down for 6 years. And while he was in, he found his place. In the Church. That's what his whole life is about now." Jackson stood up, hands on his hips as he continued, " He's running a church and a garage. I learned a lot of mechanical stuff from him and some spiritual, although he always said I could use work there. He's been a preacher for ten years now."

Jamal sighed, " I haven't spoke to him in fifteen years. We had a falling out over family stuff. And drugs. He never would sell or take any."

"He still won't." Jackson confirmed with a faint smile.

It grew quiet again. Finally, Jackson asked the inevitable question.

" What are you going to do with us?"

The huge man got up, nervously pacing. He started slamming his fists together angrily. Hi breathing became short and harsh, his face flushed under a firestorm of conflicting emotions. Differing loyalties warred within him. He paced ever faster, his movements becoming tense, jerky. Finally, with a howl of fury, he smashed a tremendous blow to the tree behind Cody Jackson and Lex Marin, scaring both of them.

"NO! I won't do it! I won't let you and this boy here, who told me he thinks of you like family be perverted by Richie, life debt or not! I will not do it! If my brother can change, then so can I!" he snarled, voice more formal than they had heard it. He looked at them, a fire in his eyes, conviction growing in his deep voice, " I'll get you and your friends out, but I can't do it alone. I need your help too. Can we work together, to save your friends and you guy."

Lex was exuberant : " Yes!"

Jackson was more subdued, but as firm as Jamal had been. ' I'd rather die than do what he wants me to do. But, if we don't stop him permanently, he'll keep after us until we're either dead or worse." His face was calm as he let the implications of success and the cost of failure weigh in.

Jamal walked over and put his massive hands on Jackson's shoulder, gazed into his ice blue eyes and swore a solemn vow, " I sweat, in Tagaloa's name and I the name of the one true God both that I won't let anything other than death stop me from keeping my word. If Richie can want something like this in his life, then he doesn't deserve to live. And he or I one will die if he get's in my way." he pulled Jackson in, hugging him hard, then pulling him away. " I have to get my soul back and I can't think of a better way than this."

"What's the plan then?, " Lex asked seconds later, after Jamal had hugged him as well.

" Dunno, you got a plan Jackson? I just kinda figured we'd grab your two friends, blast everyone else here, go to the other island and do the same."

Cody Jackson looked at them, then the sky. Then he walked over and looked at the animal's corpse before walking back over. He looked at Jamal as the man asked again,

" Any plan at all?"

Jackson proved his smile could chill bones as he grinned mirthlessly at them. " Yeah, I have one."

" What do you say we take Russell's party plans for tonight and give him and the Watson's something up their asses and see how they like it?"

Two smiles met his own.


	29. Chapter 29

DEDICATED TO MY POSITIVE REVIEWERS. YOUR KIND WORDS MEAN A LOT. I LOVE YOU PEOPLE.

Chapter 29

Surprise Party

Day 65 Late Afternoon

The Rosebud was underway once again, plying the ocean between the base camp and the smaller supply island. All seven of the people on board were hot and tired as they drifted over the blue water of the shallow bay . The three captives were restrained with their hands tied behind their backs. In the case of Nathan McHugh, his hands were additionally lashed to his ankles. Odd, moaning noises and incoherent mumbling was steadily coming from the barely conscious boy. The Australian pirate know only as Dingo snickered at him from time to time as the springy haired Nathan's hip bucked involuntarily. The two young women both looked as if they would cheerfully have dove over the side of the boat rather than be there. The older pirates, Mac Hugh and Sakai, were handling the sailing while Doctor Watson sat in the prow, an enigmatic expression on his face as they slowly crossed the last quarter mile of the water to the other beach.

Daley Marin looked at the rapidly approaching shore. The wind ruffled her recalcitrant red hair, which had grown back to its full length since her haircut of over a month ago. She scanned the beach, hoping to see her little stepbrother Lex, but the only ones in sight were the unfortunately named Harry Potter and the brutish Richard Russell, who was scowling at their vessel as they approached. The boat rocked slightly as they hit a mild crosswind. The mild jolt made her bump knees with Melissa Wu sitting beside her. The touch triggered the memories she'd been desperately fighting against for the last few hours. The images went through her head like a slideshow.

Visions of herself, Mel and Nathan having to strip in front of the four slavers. Of her being forced to passionately kiss and fondle Mel, to the whooping delight of the sordid bunch. Of the sensation of the Subversion as the shot was delivered into her veins, causing everything, every movement, every possible sensation or stimulus to take on an incredibly erotic feeling. She felt her face flush as the images of Mel's head between her legs, her tongue going into her most private self as she did the same to Mel flickered. And most of all, she remembered the sheer terror and dismay she'd felt when Nathan had the Perversion forced into him.

Sixty seconds. That was all the time it took for her boyfriend to go from being one of the kindest, gentlest young men she had ever known to transform under the drug's influence into a monster that seemed to exist only for sex. By the grace of God, the pirates had not let Nathan touch either of them. And to be fair, although the effort of doing so was almost too much, Doctor Watson had insisted on taking the girls out of the cave after Nathan got really started. But not before making them watch as an insanely over stimulated Nathan had sex with Dingo. Begging for it all the while.

Tears of fury and shame threatened to break her control as she heard Nathan moaning as the boat touched bottom. Mel didn't have her control; the tears were plain on the olive toned face of the other woman as she heard it too. And then, the time for reflections were over as the madmen met on the beach.

" Well Doc, how big of a haul are we lookin' at, presuming of course, we get off of these damned islands?" the brightly dressed Russell asked, his orange and green tropical shirt an assault on the eyes as well as good taste.

The older man struggled up the beach to the dry sand Richie Russell as standing on. He had a grimace of distaste on his face as he looked at his now wet beach shoes. Shaking them off, he answered his associate with a pleased look, " It's been a good season; I'd guess we now have in excess of three million dollars worth of product. That is, if the , err, "street value", hasn't went up appreciably in light of the Cloverfield assaults." He was referring, of course, to the series of giants monster attacks that had been happening for two months now.

" If it makes me more money, I could give a fuck less if the Crab Monsters level half the planet!" Russell crowed happily, slapping a hand on Watson's shoulder, oblivious to the discomfort on the old man's face as he did so.

Brushing Russell' hand off distastefully, Watson agreed, " It should have made the value rise substantially. But I just hope there is some vestige of civilization left for us to go to." he had a solemn expression on his wrinkled face but then, he turned his attention to other matters. " Where is my grandchild and that irritating pet of his?"

Russell rolled his eyes. " Mark and his sidekick are up at the caves. He'll barely let the girl fart without running to sniff it. That boy's head over heels for her. I hope you realize that can't go on much longer, not if we manage to leave." He had flint in his eyes as he met his partner's gaze.

Watson sighed in resignation. " I realize that we have to, how shall we say, sanitize the islands of these urchins. We cannot have potential witnesses, obviously. But, " he asked, a blend of curiosity and what might have actually been a trace of concern, " what about young Marin? I have no more desire for witnesses for the prosecution to be hanging about than you, obviously, but the child is quite precocious ." The man shook his head, making a tisking noise, " I would truly hate to see such a gifted child snuffed out like an errant flame. Have you considered Jamal's request?"

Russell actually looked uncomfortable as he responded. " Yeah, I have. And I'll even admit, the kid grows on you. A ten year old who designs boats and shelters and all the other stuff they say he did? It's incredible. And it proves why I can't let him go, not even with Little J. There's no way that kid wouldn't spill his guts and he's smart enough to put us in prison for the rest of our lives. J may never forgive me, but when we get to the island with the plane, the kid's going to have an accident. A fatal one."

" Are you absolutely certain?" Watson asked in an aggrieved tone.

" Quit fuckin' second guessing me! I hate havin' to lie to my oldest friend, but I'm not going to jail 'cause he's developing a conscience. He'll get to keep him for a while, anyway. And after tonight, the kid'll do anything we tell him to. Out of fear , if nothing else."

Watson took an almost imperceptible step back before asking, " Then we're in agreement? We shall, uhm dispose of the others after our requirements, for the construction of another boat and our more, er, prurient needs are met?"' he waited for a response fretfully.

Russell nodded affirmatively. Then said accusingly, " Heard you had the kids freakin' some earlier. Any likely prospects?"

" Oh, the joyous raptures of seeing initial lesbian encounters between an interracial pairing, the sheer delight of their unsullied beauty merging together, a symphony of sensual surrender…" he rhapsodized on until Russell broke in angrily.

" Why can't you speak plain English?!" he complained.

" Fine, you barbarian, " Watson shot back, a tinkle in his eyes, " Wu eats pussy like it's her last meal, Marin eats ass like it's her last meal and according to Dingo, McHugh has an anus that could bend steel. Satisfied?" he said archly.

" Hot damn! I test drove my fuck puppets last night and I'm ready to try out a few other models." the horny fool drooled.

Watson gave an apprehensive look at him: " What about your threats to Jackson? You wouldn't really make him…" he was unable to finish. Apparently, even he had some slight vestige of decency left in him.

" Oh yes I fucking will. And after it's over, I'll cheerfully let him blow his own brains out. I have to show dominance dammit." he said flatly.

" Richard, it's not necessary!" Watson broke in , to be cut off by a savage gesture from Russell.

" That bastard killed my brother over that kid and they're both going to pay for it! Tonight! And if you get in my way Doc, you'll regret it." And with that, he lumbered off towards the cavern, shirt billowing behind him..

Watson stood there, pale faced, his Panama hat held limply at his side. Mac Hale walked quietly up to his friend of thirty years and asked, " Any sign of sanity breaking out Luther?" the gray haired man out a hand on his hip as he looked at the other man with concern.

" Mac, there goes a man who isn't content to merely shit in a gold toilet, the fool would swear it was made of tin, " he spat contemptuously, the crudity of his speech showing any who knew him well how upset he was. " He's determined to rule by terror and to gain revenge for a brother he never trusted." He put his hat on his balding head as he sent a trenchant glare at the jungle shrubbery Russell had just disappeared into. " Absolute madman."

He turned his attention back to Hale. " Have you spoken to Saburo yet?" he asked, looking over Hale's shoulders at the beach here Saburo Sakai was assisting Dingo in getting the bound captives ashore. " Have you determined his loyalties?" he pressed.

" He's standing with us. Sakai isn't a choirboy by one damn long sight, but the deal with the boy isn't sitting well with him." He looked back at where Dingo was haranguing Nathan, who was barely capable of moving, much less following Dingo's screeched directions, " Needless to say, our aptly named Aussie will most likely side with Richie and the other freaks. At least Saburo's on our side. But damn, "he said, leathery face furrowing in concentration, " God knows what Little j will do. He wants the kid for himself, least that's what Sakai told me earlier. But you know he's always backed down to Richie when push comes to shove."

Watson had a thoughtful expression on his face, " I don't know about that. The child has charisma to match his intellect; Jamal has never shown concern for a captive like this before."

" He never spent time with any of them before; he'd always find something else to do. Poor bastard, losing his son like he did."

The two friends enjoyed a brief moment of silence before Watson spoke, " I am not a particularly moral person. I am also not a saint by any conceivable measure. I have a unfortunate proclivity for young ladies, but I cannot let this stand." His hazel eyes grew bleak for a long moment. " I have spoiled Mark absolutely rotten, I freely admit. I am truly afraid if Mark sees me let this stand, it will be his undoing. The boy is borderline dysfunctional now; this could make a true monster out of him. You know how he worships Richard."

" Honestly, I've always why you let them spend any time together. I regret the day I ever got in debt to that man." Mac Hale said.

" Me as well, my friend, " he nodded, " but, put it aside for now. I need to get with Mark and tell him that the change of management will be stepped up to tonight. We will still have to dispose of the others teenagers eventually, including his friend Taylor. And I may well let Richard kill Jackson; it would be a win-win situation there. He would undoubtedly be the ringleader of any resistance."

" What about the kid your grandson's so determined to kill ?" Hale asked.

" I suppose I'll have to let Mark kill him, to ensure his loyalty, if nothing else, " Watson said, his brief flash of humanity fading at the very mention of the troublesome Eric McGorrill, " that particular captive's life means very little to me." He brightened somewhat, " At least that means we'll get to keep all of the girls, Lex and young McHugh."

Hale exhaled slowly, an expression of disgust on his face, " Poor kid. Dingo did everything but turn him inside out."

" At least we know the Perversion turned out well. I hope dear Richie hasn't figured out that we've been diluting the Subversion in order to make more of the more expensive drug. We don't have an unlimited supply of tarasia to make more with, not until the next growing season." he shook his head irritably, " Forgive me my friend, I'm rambling. I really need to get going , to talk to Mark. We'll meet on some pretext in a half hour or so. To prepare a surprise part for Richard he'll never forget."

*************************************************************

Every few moments, Taylor Hagen fought against an increasing urge to scream. Part of it was the chore she was doing, washing Mark's boxer briefs by hand. She hated washing her own clothes, far less anyone else's . the fact that it was her self proclaimed owners made it far worse. But what really had the tanned blonde biting the inside of her lips to silence herself was the ay he kept walking by to pick her butt, while singing what he doubtless thought was a clever choice of song to her.

Cake and Sodomy, by Marilyn Manson.

After the psychotic teen had walked back to the back cavern in search of something, he risked a glance at Eric, who had been put to work inside, trying to sew together sheets to make a sail for the new ship. After the ordeal he'd been involved in earlier, Little J had flatly refused to go back into the jungle without another armed person there as well. Jackson and Lex were busy sketching out the boat design on the computer and on paper as well. Russell had insisted that he be able to see the design for himself before they went further. Potter as in a chair in the corner, idly cleaning his weapon.

The two boys had not dared to speak to Taylor in front of Potter. The sole attempt by Eric to speak had nearly resulted in disaster. He'd said " Hey" to Lex and Mark had kicked him squarely in the balls for it, laughing as Eric puked his guts out from the pain. Only the visible anger on Little J's face had saved Eric from a beating. Even Potter had looked irritated at Mark's continuing obsession with hurting the slim teen.

Finally, the chance came. Potter had fallen asleep, Mark had went out to go to the latrine. Taylor was amazed hen the gigantic Samaon held onto the door latch to keep anyone from coming in and hissed to Lex, " Tell her quick boy."

Lex gave Taylor and Eric seven sentences that told them who to trust and what to look for. And most importantly, what to do at the gathering. Barely in time to get the information out, Little J had been forced to open the door as Doctor Watson and the other captives arrived.

************************************************************

Day 65: Nightfall

The seven captives were led to the beach by Little J, Harry Potter, Saburo Sakai and the ever snarling Dingo, who as taking a great delight in jabbing his shotgun barrel into a steadily recovering Nathan McHugh's firm buttocks. Jackson noticeably lagged behind, seeming to have trouble walking for some reason, a look of discomfort on his handsome face. Potter roughly shoved him back into the line. The Watson's were already at the bonfire they had erected earlier. Russell had already been there, preparing the site for a night of terror. There were several sleeping bags thrown about the ground. And in the center of the clearing, a large air mattress in front of it, was a large tree.

Two sets of long manacles hung ominously from it.

They gathered around in a semicircle, the captives being forced to their knees by their guards as Richard Russell came in from another path. He now wore a red and black shirt with flames on it. The combination of the shirt and the red and gold flames cracking from the blazing driftwood gave him a suitably demonic appearance. He walked to the center of the group with the air of a tribal chief about to announce the fate of his victims, suitably enough.

" Well well, the gangs all here," he said in a sing song way. He looked at the seven youths appraisingly, " I think it's about time e all got better acquainted with each other, " he grinned winningly at them, " and I can't think of anything better to break the ice than a round of Subversion for the seven of you, just for medicinal purposes." he said mockingly. " Little J!"

" Yeah, boss." the big man answered from where he squatted on the ground near Lex and Taylor. " Can I help you sir?" he asked, plainly humoring the nut job.

" Care to do the honor ?" Russell asked, reaching in and drawing a vial of liquid Subversion out of his pocket, He tossed it and a hypodermic to the giant.

The Samoan went around the circle silently. He had given Nathan, Daley and Mel their shots when he suddenly split the air with a curse, "Shit, I dropped the damn thing. OWW!!" there was a crunching noise, that of glass being crushed and then the bellowing cry from Jamal as the glass went through his old shoes bottom. He stumbled , then looked at Russell, " Sorry 'bout that Richie. I gotta spare vial here though." He produced one with a flourish from his green pants pocket, " I thought e might need some more after while, " he said with a salacious smirk.

Russell looked at his friend oddly for a moment, then a slow smile crept over his dingy, bearded face. " Planning on joinin' in after all?"

The big islander cupped his privates lewdly, " Man, if I don't leave my hands alone, I'm gonna get carpal tunnel in 'em!"

Russell exploded in raucous laughter, slapping at his knees, " It's been a long time since you were here, ol pal o mine. Glad to have you back!"

Jamal finished the circle, giving Lex, Taylor, Eric and finally, Cody Jackson their shots.

Russell prowled amongst the hostages, poking and prodding at them. As he did so, he'd make a comment to the laughter of the evil assemblage.

Eric: " Boy, I've seen skeletons with better body's!'

Taylor: "After Marko knock don your backdoor, I may come for a visit too." he ignored the menacing look the younger Watson sent him.

Mel:" Bet you'll wish Viagra had never been created hen the nutty Professor over there gets ahold of your Asian ass!"

Daley:" Heard you seem to love some ass fishin'; I wouldn't do that to you. I prefer to use a pole!"

To a visibly shaking Nathan:" Heard Dingo just introduced you into the wonderful world of Doggy Style lovin'. Maybe I'll have you and your red haired friend have a goober gobblin' contest with Dingo and me after I take care of some personal business."

He looked over at Jamal, whom he had already talked to before they ever left camp. " Little J, I actually hate doing this , because it makes me go back on my word, but we've talked it over. J understands that I have to have closure. That I can't let my brother's killers go unpunished. So here's what's fixing to happen." He leveled a finger at the tiny face of Lex Marin, who drew as far back as he could.

" Kid, you're the reason my brother got killed. I'm not saying he was right for wanting to fuck you. But the fact remains, if you ren't there, he couldn't have obsessed over you."

Daley Marin immediately began to protest, only to have her voice droned out by a raging Jackson.

" You and your Goddamn pedophile brother BOTH deserve to be rotting in Hell, you sick fuck! Your damn brother wrecked the damn plane so he culd fuck all of us, the asshole. I'm glad I killed him, I don't regret it and I'd gladly kill your ass too!" he went sprawling as Little J backhanded him.

" Bob and Richie saved my life when I wasn't any older than you, punk! Bob was the godfather of my dead boy! I hate this, but it's about family and my family comes before yours white boy!" he drew back a leg as if to punt Jackson's head from his shoulders, only to be stopped by an upraised hand from Russell.

" Enough! I need him alive, for now." Russell snarled, " Put the brats in the manacles, " he commanded Jamal and Potter.

Thirty seconds later, Lex was manacled to the tree, tears of fear on his face and Jackson, stripped bare, was finally in his his. Potter as hurriedly withdrawing. He'd learned the hard way that Jackson had a very respectable left hook, rubbing his chin here he'd been tagged. Jamal stood by, seemingly impassive. He turned , coughing.

He hoped with all his heart that Eric and Taylor remembered the signals.

What he didn't notice was the way Sakai and Mark kept shifting positions relative to Russell and Potter.

" Give Jackson the Perversion and muzzle that bitch!" Russell demanded as Daley fought ferociously to prevent Mac Hale, from gagging her, to no avail. She as too mad to realize how unusually gentle the elder pirate was trying to be. She looked on in horror as Jackson was injected with the needle in Little J's hand.

" Leave him the fuck alone!' Eric cried out, only to be clubbed viciously by Mark.

" NO! Stop this!" Taylor added, furiously pulling from a grinning Dingo.

No one paid attention to Jackson, who reached into the one hiding spot he had. Who was being partially blocked from sight by Jamal's bulk. Ho used the key to free Lex and himself in the space of the five seconds distraction his friends had bought him. Jamal's hands flashed into his pockets, one emerged with a knife he tossed to Jackson, the other with his .44 magnum.

Lex dashed into the jungle as Jamal shot an incredulous Richie Russell in the shoulder, his aim ruined when a shot from Mark Russell hit Jamal's arm a glancing blow.

All Hell broke loose as an escape attempt suddenly went awry as the Watson and Russell feud came crashing to a crescendo in a hail of wild gunfire.

_Oh shit, _was Jackson's thought as he and Jamal charged to the other hostages aid.


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

War of the Monsters

Day 65: Night

" I'll fucking kill you all!" Russell bellowed in fury, firing at anyone and everyone who crossed his reddened eyes. The only thing that saved a naked Cody Jackson from being shot in the back of the head by the enraged man was the fact that he was not left handed; he'd been forced to swap hands after Jamal's bullet had torn Russell's right shoulder into shredded meat. The bullet still went close enough by Jackson's left ear that he felt the pressure wave from it. Jackson dove into the Australian Dingo, who had shoved Eric don and was trying to hold a gun to his head. Unfortunately for him, Eric was definitely not being effected by anything other than a shot of water into his veins. Dingo had assumed he could handle the Subversion crazed youth easily, but a sober and desperate Eric McGorrill was proving to be an entirely different breed of cat. Or other form of wildlife as the slim teen reached up and bit at one of Dingo's ears as Jackson collided into them.

"AHHRRGGH!" the outback bandit howled like a wild beast as the combination of the teeth and the impact ripped his right ear from his body, the blood sluicing into the night air. He made the mistake of dropping his gun and grabbing at his wound.

Eric grabbed the gun, but the job was already done, Jackson slashed at the pirate's throat with all the strength in his body. He fought an overpowering urge to vomit as he felt the knife tear though the gristle and tendons. " You know what to do!" he snapped at Eric as he gathered himself to go aid Jamal, who had managed to wound Potter and now had Nathan tossed over his shoulder. Eric nodded as he spun and grabbed Taylor's arm.

" Meet you at Rosebud! Love you!" he added as they took off on their way. They knew what to do and that Jackson and Jamal were going to bring the others.

Jackson ran over and helped Mel and Daley, both of whom were trying desperately to hide behind a small shrub as the three way fight tore on. Jackson's eyes bulged as he realized they were caressing one another even as they huddled there terrified. He felt like kicking himself an instant later.

_Idiot, they got a dose this morning and more not five minutes ago, and not the weak shit me and Eric had either!_

" C'mon, while they're busy shooting at each other! Hurry baby!" he ordered harshly, looking about at the war that had broken out. The girls seemed to visibly struggle to comprehend for a handful of seconds, then Mel gave him a smile that nearly stole the breath from him.

" We're coming ! Come on Day, " she said, grabbing her friends arm and pulling her up.

Jackson pointed at Jamal, who was giving them covering fire from a nearby tree, Nathan still draped over his shoulder. Even in the dim light, Jackson could see the blood dripping from Jamal's injured arm. It didn't seem to be stopping the Samoan from carrying the eight seemingly effortlessly.

He ran up and took the pistol from Jamal, freeing him up as he told the girls. " Follow him and don't stop for anything! I'm gonna cover us."

His words proved prophetic as Saburo Sakai came charging at him, roaring in Japanese at him, " Banzai!". By all rights, he should have killed Jackson . His gun as aimed at him before the teen could respond, but Sakai's pistol as snagged by an almost invisible branch, giving Jackson the split second he needed.

_Sayonara, _he thought as he shot Sakai in the face. Then he plunged into the jungle after his companions. The battle raged on behind him.

***************************************************************

Lex Marin sped through the night. He had a part to play in the drama that had nothing to do with fighting anyone; he as to deal with the lair. He picked himself up for the third time as he finally came to the cave. He dove in with the lightning quick reflexes that had kept him from being hurt in the jungle night. He ran to the dim corner of the front cave here J had hid his set of padlock keys and went to the lock on the door to the inner cave. Seconds later, he went in. He grabbed a set of clothes for Jackson and flung them and the laptop into it's oversized carrying case. Then, he pt the lighter J had left with the keys to good use.

Fifty seconds later, a small form emerged from the cave. If there had been anyone close enough to sniff the air, they would have smelled the smoke from the raging fire in the caves below. Lex went to meet the others , his heart pounding in his chest like the tread of a giant.

**********************************************************

Taylor went flying into the air, looking like an angel as her honey blonde hair made a halo around her head and shoulders. " Unhh!" she cried out as she crashed to the sand for the second time in as many minutes. " Damn driftwood, " she grunted to Eric, who offered a hand to her, the pistol looking out of place in his other one as he nervously looked into the jungle.

" Come on Taylor, " he urged as he pulled her up, " even with a gun I don't want to have to tangle with"

" MARK!" she screamed in terror.

" Exactly, " Eric started to say, before realizing Taylor was looking over his shoulder. Before he could turn, a lighting fast fist caught him in the chin. He fell over backwards so hard he flipped in the sand. The pistol went flying.

Mark stood there, 6 feet and a hundred and seventy five pounds of pissed off psychotic. He had blood dripping into his face from a huge bullet graze on his forehead. His brown hair hung dankly into his eyes as he glared at them. Eric scuttled backwards like a crab as Mark pointed his on pistol at Eric. He spoke slowly, pain in his voice as advanced towards them.

" He's dead. They're all dead. Rich, Dingo, Sakai, even old man Hale. But they killed my Grandfather first. It's your fault." He fired the pistol.

Sand bloomed upwards as the shot hit two inches from Eric's head.

" You don't have to do this Mark! Please!" Taylor begged frantically, praying for the others to arrive. Mark snarled at her.

" Shut up bitch! I was gonna kill you after I fucked you anyways. I'd planned on doing it while I fucked you , to be honest. To show Rich and Gramps I was ready to really be part of the crew." He seemed eerily calm while making the admission.

_Warped fuckin' asshole! _Eric looked into the dark jungle in fading hope of a miracle, but there was no hope.

Mark advanced steadily. " I'm going to kill him slow, but I can't stand to look at your treacherous face any longer Taylor. Good bye."

He had his back to the nearby boats as he walked forward. The tide had been coming in while they were having their confrontation. Unseen to all three as the movement under the surface. A sliver of gray broke the surface almost silently.

Mark leveled the gun at Taylor. " I may make the little asshole there fuck your corpse before I kill him."

It was somehow completely in character for Taylor to make a noise.

" Ewww." And then she screamed as a six legged shape landed on her tormentor's broad back.

" Get the fuck away from there Taylor!" Eric called out in stunned shock as the to monsters battled. Apparently, Mark had made the same mistake Eric had; he'd lost his gun in the attack. But in the rush of events, Eric had spotted his. He aimed it at the tangled duo and sent five shots into the fray.

The monsters, both of them, fell to the wet beach. There was a crash in the woods behind them as Little J's titanic frame came barreling don the hillside, Jackson, Mel and Daley in tow. They looked at the tableau.

" Did I get them?" Eric asked , his gun waving wildly. Jackson hurried to give his gun back to J and he went over, gently taking the pistol from Eric's trembling hand. He walked over and shot both animals in the head.

" They're both dead now, if they weren't before., " he said, a bleak, harsh look on his face in the bright full moonlight.

" Jackson, help me?" came the unmistakable falsetto scream of Lex Marin from the woods. From the amount of noise, something as in there with him.

"Hang On !' he called back, taking off at a run to help the boy who may as well have been his brother. All six of the other 29 Downers followed, even the barely mobile Nathan.

None of them heard or saw it when Jamal collapsed onto the beach after just a dozen steps. The blood flowed copiously, not from the wound on his arm, but from the one his blood red shirt had hidden, right over his peforated liver. He lay still on the wet sand, the water slowly rising.


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Judgment Day

Day 65: Night

The six of them went crashing into the jungle head on. Jackson and Eric, both armed, took the lead. Mel and Daley were right behind them with Taylor and Nathan bringing up the rear. Jackson let out a grunt as errant branches tore into his bare skin and his raw feet felt like they were about to fall off his legs. He felt soft hands grip his shoulder and then Mel's voice was in his ear, gasping, "Here, wrap up in my blouse, " she panted as they searched for the lost boy.

Jackson swiftly wrapped the blouse around his narrow hips as he plowed on. He roared into the night, " LEX! Where are you?"

Daley and Mel were both calling out as well. Eric had dropped back to help a badly faltering Nathan, who was oddly resistant to the help.

" C'mon. lean on me some Nate. It's all right." Eric offered, breathing harshly from the running. He held out a hand to the taller teen only to have Nathan slap it violently away."

" Keep your hands off me faggot!" he snarled, " I don't want to be touched by someone like you, not ever!" He stood defiantly, obviously ready to attack Eric if we tried to come closer.

The jungle was momentarily silent as the five others stood in shock at Nathan's words. Jackson tensed up, ready to separate the other two men by force if necessary when Lex's cry came to them again. It was closer and sounded more desperate than before.

" Cody! Day! Nathan , somebody help!" came the call.

Taking off again, they came to the top of the hill and saw what had happened to the boy in an instant. He lay in a cluster of dead trees, probably felled by tropical storms from seasons past. That was all that was keeping the two parasite from getting a clean run at him. The boy had a long stick, swatting at the closest monster. It hadn't a hope of actually stopping it, but the creature were giving it room.

_They seem to be smarter than I gave them credit for, _Jackson thought, seeing in a blaze of insight what the monsters strategy was, _they're trying to tire him out. The second he swings too slow or shows any signs of weakness, they'll both jump in at once. Then it's game over._

He motioned for Eric to come up beside him. Once the smaller man had, he looked at him and spoke gently: " Take a deep breath. Forget about being mad or hurt. Just fire at the one on the left on three, I'll get the one on the right. Lex!" he called out to the caged child.

" Yeah?" came the quavering reply, "Duck and cover and three! One. Two. Three!" Five shots rang out in three seconds. The one Jackson fired at received two out of three bullets fired at it, the left, one out of Eric's two. Both beast squealed in pain and scuttled away shrieking. Daley leaped on to the moldy logs and gave her stepbrother a hand up , hugging him as he emerged. She helped him to the ground as they waited for Jackson's orders.

Mel asked a question that had been in the back of her mind since they took off running. " Why aren't we frying right now? We're a long way from anyone with a controller."

Jackson actually grinned , no we're not. In fact, there's three of them. One in Eric's hatband, " he pointed at the battered hat, " one in Lex's cap and one in my, "

" Not there," Eric snickered, glancing at Jackson's half exposed ass. He rocked on his heels as Jackson shoved him.

" One on my cross, dummy. The pirates took the collars, the gun, knives, ropes. Everything they thought me, Eric, Lex or Taylor might use as a weapon. But they didn't count on little J slipping the spares to Lex and Lex taking the covers off so we could hide them in almost plain sight. Although, it was a good thing it was night or mine would have probably been seen eventually. We made sure one of us was near one of you. You can take 'em off now, by the way." And he ripped his away with a flourish.

Lex looked around, searching. Confused, he asked Cody, ' Where's Little J?"

Jackson felt a tingle of alarm as he realized the Samoan was not nearby.

" J! Jamal, where are you?" he called out, concerned now. There was no reply.

" Maybe he stayed to guard the boat?" Eric suggested reasonably, still shooting daggers at Nathan as he spoke.

" He's unarmed now, we'd better get down there fast, in case Mark lied about the fuckers all being dead." Jackson said, turning an leaving without another word.

***************************************************************

They went back the same way they had came. Jackson and Eric now only had five round of ammo left between them. They ere in the lead, the others clustered behind them with Lex in the middle, the only relatively safe place for him. They got up to the beach and saw nothing but Rosebud and the to two person canoes the pirates had used. Finally, Eric noticed something almost submerged in the water. It was Jamal, his head barely above the water. " Cody, over there!" he shouted, running to Little J as he summoned his companion.

The two of them got on either side of the colossal man, straining mightily as they pulled him up past the waterline. Mel met them, with Lex bringing up the rear. He'd gotten the first aid kit from Rosebud. Mel leaned over, listening for breath.

She shook her head at Jackson, "' He's breathing, but just barely." She squinted her eyes and ordered Jackson, " Hold out your hand."

He did so, mystified. Mel pointed at the blood coating it. " Where was your hand just then?" He indicated the spot, lifting up J's shirt and grimacing as he saw the gaping bullet hole in the side of his large rescuer.

" Dammit, why didn't he say something? One of us could've stayed and helped him!" He looked at Mel, the question plain on his face. She shook her head negatively.

" I don't know how he's still alive. He must be strong as an ox, " she said, the regret plain in her voice.

" Nah, girl, just stubborn as one," the deep voice rumbled, barely intelligible from the pain he as obviously in.' The large chocolate colored eyes opened and blinked slowly. " Where's my boy at ? Did you find him alright?" he asked, the effort making him shudder. A tiny hand gently touched his shoulder. Lex had went to a knee by the fallen man.

" I'm here beside you J, "' he said, his tenor voice cracking with barely suppressed emotions, the tears falling freely. " How do you feel?" he managed to grate out.

Blunt as ever , Jamal replied, " Like shit, little guy. I think my tickets about to be punched. It's getting kinda hard to breath, can you guys set me up a little?" he asked, taking short, fast breaths, his massive chest trembling.

" It might make it worse,' Mel warned, only to have J cut her off.

" Little miss, I ain't gonna get better. I'm not afraid to say it. But I'm not quite as scared of dyin' now as I was just a day ago. If I go now, I go better than I would have then." Eric and Jackson helped him raise up slightly, cradling his head and shoulders in their linked arms.

" He spoke to Lex in a mild tone, " Little Lex, I forgot what bein' human was 'til I came across you. You're one smart little man. And you gotta lot of love from these people here. Not many would do what they did to help you."

Lex couldn't reply without coming apart. He held one of Jamal's big hands as the tears flowed.

" You be good. You trust in Jackson; he's smart like you and he's got heart. You listen some to Eric and Taylor too. They know how to bend without breakin', that comes hard to a lot of folks older and supposedly wiser than them. There's no shame in waiting to fight when the time is right, not when a bully like Mark jumps you. Jackson," h called, " give Lex my bandanna in my back pocket, would ya?"

Jackson reached and took the bandanna, handing it to the Latin boy.

J spoke on, blood no visible on his lips. " That was the first present my boy gave me, the only one he ever picked out on his own. I want you to have it. Take it and go, little one. I don't want you here when I pass. You'll be in my thoughts when I go." He smiled at the boy.

Bandanna in his hand, Lex , leaned over. He hugged the big man, reaching up and swiftly giving him a kiss on the cheek. " I love you Little J." he jumped up and ran over to a waiting Daley, ho enclosed the sobbing child in an embrace, looking silently at the rapidly fading man.

" Jackson, I don't have anything to give you other than saying thanks for my life and soul. Tell my brother he did good with you. Tell him how and why I died. Tell Taylor thank you for me for her part. Eric," he called out to the other teen, " you take care o' him n Lex. I hope you to guys and the woman in your life can make it work. Tell Taylor not to be a scared forever or Mark ill have won. That goes for you too."

" I will." he promised, tears on his bony cheeks now.

He looked at the stars in the sky and began to speak rapidly, " It's like Judgment Day. And it's because there's so many people like me and Bob, Watson and Richie. It's like there's just so much evil that God or Tagaloa has decided it's time to put the fear of God back into people. Like the old monsters from the ancient days are being set loose again because we done so much bad.. " He fought for breath, grimacing as spasms began to shake him, " Goodbye kid. Get 'em home. Get them ho…" The life left him.

His journey on this Earth ended, not with the violence he seemed to have expected, but with silence. Save for the sobbing of a young man who'd found guidance once again for a unlikely source, only to have it taken from him again. Mel and Eric comforted their beloved other as he grieved for a friend he'd only just begun to know.

***************************************************************

It was nearly midnight when they decided to go ahead and leave this island. They planned on raiding the pirates other nest, then going off in the morning for the closest of the other two islands on Russell's map. It was fortunate indeed that Lex and Jackson both had excellent memories of the map.

Nathan and Eric were untying the Rosebud. Nathan roughly cleared his throat and spoke, " I'm sorry. I took it out on you because of what happened to me. I had no right. I'm just…" he couldn't find the words to go on.

Fortunately, he was dealing with someone ho had the same experience in his own recent past. More importantly, he was dealing with a true friend.

" You don't have to apologize to me, man. But if you ever want to talk, I'll be there. Or rant, or , well, anything other than punch. I'm not down with violence." And the not as scrawny as he used to be man laughed.

Nathan surprised himself with a bark of laughter of his own, " Damn, a good friend'd let me beat the crap outta them, if it helped me."

" Uh, can e go back to being not so good friends then?" he cackled back as they walked up to the ship where the others were waiting.

They all sat on the boat as Lex stood up.

Without preamble, the youngest of them spoke from the heart.

"We wouldn't have survived without Little J, Jamal. He kept me safe when he had no reason to. He gave his life to protect me and to help all of us when it would have been easier and safer for him to have let us all die. He saved my sister's life," he looked at Daley, " my brother's , " he looked at a smiling Jackson, " and all of my friends. I'll ear this bandanna he gave me until it's my time to go. If I ever have a son, Jamal will be his name. We owe him a minute of silence."

With Lex bowing his head first, seven hearts and minds said farewell to the man who had saved them.

Lex thanked him for his life.

Cody thanked him for helping him save his very soul.

Mel thanked him for saving the loves of her life.

Eric thanked him for Jackson, Lex and Taylors lives before he thanked him for his own.

Nathan thanked him for delivering the vengeance he'd have probably died trying to render.

Taylor thanked him for saving her best friend's lives.

Daley thanked him for everything else, but especially for saving Lex's innocence.

The silence ended as Cody Jackson stood up.

" Let's get back to island hopping our way home."

************************************************************

In a ditch on a forgotten island in the South Pacific, a blood stained hand reached up into the night. As evil a soul as ever drew breath swore vengeance would be served.

Coming Soon: Flight 29 Down: Uncharted Island

Hey have had their innocence threatened or destroyed. They have beaten madmen, pirates and monsters. Can their luck possibly hold when the greatest evil they have ever faced comes back from beyond the grave? And what happens when one of them starts having conversations about the Cloverfield monsters with the Oceanic gods ?

Find Out in three days.


End file.
